Neonatal pneumonia is a lung disease that can occur in newborns as young as 24 hours old and is a significant cause of death in newborns. Risk factors include maternal fever, preterm labor, and gestational disease. Symptoms include an abnormally high respiratory rate, grunting, and yellow or green airway secretions. Prompt diagnosis and treatment are essential, and treatment involves antimicrobial drugs and respiratory support.
Neonatal pneumonia is pneumonia that occurs in very young babies. This lung disease can develop in newborns as young as 24 hours old and often occurs in part due to abnormalities in the airways and lungs. Neonatal pneumonia is a significant cause of death in newborns; in deaths occurring in the first 30 days of life, pneumonia is a contributing factor in up to 25% of cases. Infants with pneumonia complicated by blood-borne infections have a 10% risk of mortality, and this risk triples if the infant has a low birth weight.
There are several risk factors for neonatal pneumonia that may be present before birth. These include maternal fever, tenderness or pain in the uterine area, urinary tract infection, and fetal rapid heartbeat. Signs that may be noticed at or shortly after birth include preterm labor, cloudy or foul-smelling amniotic fluid, and rupture of uterine membranes before labor begins. An additional risk factor is maternal gestational disease with an infectious organism known to be able to cross the placental barrier.
Newborns with pneumonia can have a number of different symptoms. These include an abnormally high respiratory rate, grunting on exhalation, yellow or green airway secretions, aspiration of blood, oxygen deprivation in some tissues and discolored skin, hair and nails. Newborns may also have temperature fluctuations, rashes, jaundice, irregular heartbeats, and a distended abdomen.
Prompt diagnosis and treatment of neonatal pneumonia is essential due to the high risk of mortality associated with this disease. Pneumonia can significantly impair gas exchange in the lungs of newborns, potentially resulting in oxygen deprivation and impaired metabolism of all cell types in the body. Structural and immunological defense mechanisms are not fully formed in newborns, which makes it almost impossible for the newborn to fight off the infection effectively. It also increases the risk of the infection spreading from the lungs to other parts of the body.
The goals of treatment for neonatal pneumonia are to eradicate the infectious agent while also protecting the newborn by providing respiratory support. There are some risks involved in the treatment, however, which need to be minimized to ensure your baby’s lungs are not permanently damaged. The main risk of antimicrobial treatment is that antimicrobial drugs can temporarily worsen lung inflammation, which could increase the risk of permanent lung damage. To reduce this risk, antimicrobial drugs are carefully chosen to minimize the dose needed to fight the infection.
Antimicrobial drugs are the key to successfully treating this disease, but drugs alone cannot provide the child with adequate support. In addition to antimicrobial drugs, the baby is provided with a source of oxygen to ensure he is not deprived of oxygen due to reduced lung function. Newborns might also receive blood transfusions and intravenous fluids to ensure adequate nutrition and blood oxygen capacity.
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