LONG TERM PROGNOSIS OF INFANTS WITH SEVERE IDIOPATHIC RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME.

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Abstract
Of 77 children surviving IRDS [idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome] with the aid of intermittent positive pressure ventilation, 75 were followed up by age 2.6-7.6 yr together with 68 matched controls. The morbidity of lower respiratory tract illnesses was significantly higher in IRDS survivors than in controls affecting a total of 48%, half of whom were admitted to hospital on at least one occasion but only 3 IRDS survivors had pneumonias beyond their 3rd yr. One child suffered from a moderate stridor due to a partial laryngeal stenosis and one from some dyspnoea at function caused by broncho-pulmonary dysplasia. Thoracic X-ray changes were found significantly more often and more marked in IRDS survivors but on the whole the changes were discrete. Neither the occurrence of pneumonia nor X-ray changes in the IRDS survivors were statistically relatable to a number of neonatal or therapeutical characteristics. Measurements of heart volume, respiratory frequency, O2 saturation and acid-base values did not differ between the groups. Ventilated IRDS survivors, even with some degree of radiographic demonstrable residua, thus seem to have a good long-term prognosis with regard to lung function, irrespective of a preliminary high morbidity of lower respiratory tract illnesses.