LATE PROGNOSIS IN SURVIVORS WITH SEVERE IDIOPATIC RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME TREATED WITH INTERMITTENT POSITIVE PRESSURE VENTILATION

26 patients treated in infancy with Bird Ventilator Mark 8 and 10 for IRDS and who have now reached 5 to 7,1/2 years of age, have been followed up together with regard to sex, season of birth, gestational age /or birth weight/ and parental social class. 3 more survivors with former IRDS were incompletely investigated /2/ or lost to follow up /1/. The IRDS group scored insignificantly lower than the controls in the WPPSI/WISC test /102,4 versus 109,6/. Significant handicaps possibly related to anoxi were found among 9 former IRDS patients /cerebral palsy and IQ 84 /1/, hydrocephalus and IQ 72 /1/, IQ scores below 85 /3/, epilepsy /1/ and speech retardation /3/ and among 2 controls /bilateral hearing loss /2/ one with IQ below 85/. 2 former IRDS patients had tracheostomies performed during their first year of life due to subglottic stenosis. The normal airway passage could be restored after 9 and 17 months respectively. 11 cases had at least one pneumonia against 2 in the control group /p 0,01/ but mainly during their first 2 years of life. The occurence of pneumonias in the IRDS group were positively correlated to the length of the ventilator treatment.