Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: Treatment and Prevention

Abstract

Since 1967, when it was first defined and described the nature and definition of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) has evolved. Based on clinical and radiographic evidence of pulmonary disease in moderately to late premature infants with a history of respiratory distress syndrome, BPD was familiarly defined as a chronic form of lung disease in neonates treated with oxygen and positive pressure ventilation for a primary lung disorder, the nature of BPD has evolved into a “new” form of BPD typically seen in neonates surviving at the threshold of viability and characterized primarily by arrest of alveolar and vascular development. Infants develop BPD in about 1.5% of all newborn births. The incidence of BPD appears to be growing in conjunction with the increased survival of very-low-birth-weight infants who are treated for and recover from respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). This review has been an up-date of literature data, including animal studies, human pilot studies, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), meta-analyses and systematic reviews published on the PubMed data base.