[Revision of diagnostic and therapeutic activities in neonatal respiratory distress at a second-level intensive care center].

From January 1980 till June 1987, 62 children with important respiratory problems were hospitalized in the neonatal pathology department. They were the 4.6% of the patients. Subjects suffering from heart-disease were no taken into consideration because they were transferred to a third level centre. The newborn infants who showed a respiratory distress cleared up with the only oxygen therapy were not studied. 39 newborn infants were treated with C.P.A.P., 12 of these ere cured with mechanical ventilation. 23 new-born infants immediately needed the use of the mechanical ventilation. The pathologies which caused the respiratory distress were in frequency order: hyaline membrane disease (41), pulmonary hypoatelectasis (16), serious dismaturity (2), connatal bronchopneumonia (1), post-asphyxial syndrome (1), endocranial haemorrhage (1). The global mortality was of the 32.2%. The mortality among the new-born infants who had been subjected to mechanical ventilation was of the 51.4%. The new-born infants who have suffered sequela that cause disability were 4: bronchopulmonary dysplasia (2), retrolental fibroplasia (1), spastic tetraparesis (1).