BACKGROUND: The significant advancement in the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome can be attributed to prenatal identification of high risk pregnancies, prevention of illness through antenatal care, prenatal administration of glucocorticoids, advancement in respiratory support and surfactant therapy. These measures resulted in the reduction of mortality and morbidity rates in preterm infants. AIM OF THE STUDY: To find the efficacy of surfactant therapy in relation to time of administration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed data of 122 preterm babies with Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) hospitalized in the Special Neonatal Care Unit (SNCU) of the Pediatric Department, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Kadapa, A. P., India. RESULTS:We investigated the clinical efficacy of surfactant therapy in relation to the time of administration and found that early treatment with surfactant is more effective and resulted in highly significant reduction of mortality rate (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Surfactant therapy is beneficial in preterm babies with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). So a reasonable recommendation is to treat the infants with surfactant as soon as the clinical signs of respiratory distress appear.

No abstract