Respiratory distress in newborn. A prospective study
Misra, P.K.
Indian Pediatrics 24(1): 77-80
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-6061 PMID: 3666933 Document Number: 287581
In a prospective study of respiratory distress (RD) in 2400 consecutively delivered neonates 96 were found to be having respiratory distress giving an incidence of 4%. A higher incidence was found in LBW babies compared to normal weight ones (10.1 vs 1.62%). A very high incidence of 21.1% was seen in preterm compared to only 1.9% in term babies and 6.9% in the post-term babies. Males were more commonly affected than females. Among the cases having RD, a high incidence of deliveries by cesarean section was found (38.5%), and 54.2% of them were preterm. Common etiological factors were pneumonia, transient tachypnea of newborn (TTN) in 18.7% each, CNS problems due to asphyxia in 17.6%, meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) in 15.6% and IRDS in 13.5%. Mortality in these cases was very high (58.3%), which was mainly contributed by preterms (77%), 82.7% of preterm and 30.9% of term babies having respiratory distress died. Prognosis was very good in TTN and better in cases of pneumonia and MAS as compared to other groups.