[Survey on the fate of newborn infants treated in pediatric intensive care units. II. Respiratory sequelae].

Five hundred sixty children treated at the neonatal period (between 1969 and 1972) were reexamined when they were 1 and/or 2 years old. At 2 years of age, the rate of anomalies considered as probable respiratory sequellae of the neonatal disease, was 10%. In this population, hyaline membrane disease was responsible for nearly 2/3 of the respiratory sequellae observed at 2 years of age, whereas it concerned less than 1/3 of the population under study. The overall prognosis of neonatal disorders for which treatment in an intensive care unit was required during the 4 years under consideration, is clearly improving, since the decrease of death-rate is not associated with an increase of respiratory sequellae among the survivors.