[Neonatal mechanical ventilation. Experience in 259 cases (author's transl)].

Results obtained in a group of 295 newborn infants who where mechanically ventilated are exposed. Special emphasis is laid on the 104 patients with IRDS. This disease represented the 40% of all causes of respiratory insufficiency leading to mechanical ventilation, and 60% of all the primary respiratory causes. The overall mortality rate of ventilated patients was 77%, decreasing from a high 86% to 69% in the period studied. In patients ventilated because of IRDS, mortality decreased from 86% in 1974 to 55.8% in 1978. That of all patients with IRDS decreased likewise from 57% to 30%. Current concepts in neonatal mechanical ventilation are reviewed.