Morbidity of survivors of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome under four years of age.

This study evaluates the morbidity of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) survivors in the Taiwan area. Sixty-three survivors of RDS, without surfactant therapy, were followed from January 1984 to December 1994. Comparisons between RDS survivors and 102 premature controls demonstrated that allergic rhinitis and hyperreactive airway (HRA) were adversely affected in RDS infants and children, especially in patients with chronic lung disease (CLD). It is interesting that a high incidence of otitis media and hypothyroidism was not found in this study, even though these have been reported elsewhere as more frequent among RDS survivors than among control subjects.