Pulmonary complications of long-term respirator care in infants.

Twelve infantile autopsy cases up to 205 days using a long-term respirator care were examined in this study. These cases could be divided into three subgroups. The first group included the cases treated with long-term respirator care for hyaline membrane disease. In this subgroup, bronchopulmonary dysplasia was found during the course. The second group included the cases treated with long-term respirator care for other causes and were very premature infants. In this group, some cases showed bronchopulmonary dysplasia-like lesions. The third group was similar to the second group except for not being very premature. All groups had similar histological changes including alveolar cell desquamation, regeneration of alveolar lining cells, fibrosis, and smooth muscle-like tissue formation of alveolar walls. However, the premature lung tissues remained characteristically in some cases of the second group. In this group, the prematurity of lung was thought responsible for the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia-like lesion. In addition to bronchopulmonary dysplasia or bronchopulmonary dysplasia-like lesion, other changes including pneumonia, persistent ductus arteriosus, cytomegalic inclusion disease and so forth were discussed.