Journal
SEMINARS IN FETAL & NEONATAL MEDICINE
Volume 18, Issue 6, Pages 336-343Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.siny.2013.08.011
Keywords
Airway liquid clearance; Functional residual capacity; Lung aeration; Positive end-expiratory pressure; Preterm birth; Pulmonary ventilation
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Funding
- Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program
- SPring-8 synchrotron facility (Japan)
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The transition to newborn life critically depends upon lung aeration and the onset of air-breathing, which triggers major cardiovascular changes required for postnatal life, including increases in pulmonary blood flow. Recent imaging studies indicate that lung aeration and functional residual capacity (FRC) recruitment results from inspiratory efforts, which create transpulmonary pressure gradients. During inspiration, these pressure gradients drive airway liquid movement through the conducting and into the distal airways where it crosses the pulmonary epithelium and enters the surrounding tissue. Although this process can occur rapidly (within 3-5 breaths), liquid clearance from lung tissue is much slower, resulting in oedema and increased interstitial tissue pressures, facilitating liquid re-entry into the airways at FRC. Whereas this liquid may be cleared during the next inspiration, liquid re-entry at FRC can be opposed by Na+ reabsorption, oncotic pressures and expiratory braking manoeuvres. Recognition that transpulmonary pressure gradients mainly drive airway liquid clearance at birth has provided a clearer understanding of how this process may be facilitated in very preterm infants. In particular, it underpins the rationale for providing respiratory support that initially focuses on moving liquid through tubes (airways) rather than air. As the viscosity of liquid is much greater than air, the resistance to moving liquid is similar to 100 times greater than air, necessitating the use of higher pressures or longer inflation times. Although it is unclear how this strategy could be safely applied clinically, it is clear that end-expiratory pressures are required to create and maintain FRC in preterm infants. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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