Volume limited ventilation for treatment of severe respiratory distress in neonates.

Ventilatory treatment of the very small infant with severe respiratory distress remains controversial. At several occasions pressure limited ventilators have shown not to provide adequate alveolar ventilation in these newborn babies. On the other hand, until now few data are found concerning the ventilation of newborns with volume limited ventilators. The authors report two cases with successful ventilation using a servo controlled volume limited machine and they stress the possibilities and advantages of such a type of ventilator in a neonatal intensive care unit.