Background: Pulmonary air-leakage (PAL), especially pneumothorax, is a potentially severe complication of pulmonary disease in newborn infants. It is often related to therapeutic procedures such as resuscitation and mechanical ventilation.
Material and methods: This is a prospective study of infants with PAL who were born in the period 1989-2006 and were hospitalised in an intensive care unit.
Results: PAL occurred in 54 of 39,101 (1.4 per 1000) live-born infants; 34/54 (63%) were boys and 34/54 (63%) were born at term. 38/54 (70%) PAL cases had asphyxia and different pulmonary diseases, 16/54 (30%) PAL-incidences occurred spontaneously and 23/54 (43%) were diagnosed < 1 hour after birth. PAL occurred during resuscitation for perinatal asphyxia or initiation of mechanical ventilation in 18/54 (33%) patients, during CPAP-treatment in 12/54 (22%), and during mechanical ventilation after the start-up phase in 8/54 (15%) patients. Of 271 infants treated with mechanical ventilation, 144 (53%) were preterm infants with RDS. 64/114 (born 1992-2006) of these received a porcine surfactant and 3/64 (5%) developed PAL. The remaining 50 ventilated RDS-patients born in the same time period had a milder disease; 3/50 (6%) of these developed PAL (p > 0.05).
Interpretation: PAL often occurred spontaneously and shortly after birth in connection with resuscitation and stabilization for respirator treatment. The risk for PAL in mechanically ventilated infants was lower once the start-up process had been completed. In infants who had received porcine surfactant for RDS the incidence of PAL during mechanical ventilation was low.