The leading cause of morbidity and mortality in preterm babies was previously hyaline membrane disease, later called respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Its was shown that these preterm babies had no or insufficient amounts of a surface-active material, namely surfactant, lining the pulmonary alveoli. With about 140 million births per year globally, we can assume that 10–15 million babies are born preterm. About 10 percent of preterm babies develop RDS, and in the 1960s about 50% of these babies died indicating that nearly one million preterm babies died per year because of RDS.
Det här är ett utplock av en intressant artikel från KBN – Nr. 1 – vol. 36 – 2024.