A late preterm infant with progressive respiratory distress

Abstract

A 2300 g female baby was born at 36+4 gestational age via caesarean section. Prenatal history was unremarkable. At 2 hours of age the baby was transferred to neonatal intensive care unit due to progressive respiratory distress and received poractant alfa as intubation-surfactant-extubation therapy after which FiO2 requirement decreased from 0.50 to 0.25. At 34 hours of age, while she was still on nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), she had sudden deterioration with retractions, desaturation and bradycardia. The infant was immediately intubated and put on high frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) after which her oxygen saturations and heart rate stabilized.