For the first time in India, doctors saved the life of a 36-week-old prematurely born baby by using a new technique of surfactant therapy at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi.
Surfactant is a liquid produced by the lungs, which keeps the airways (alveoli) open, making it possible for human beings to breathe air. An unborn baby starts making surfactant at about 26 weeks of pregnancy, as per doctors.
However, babies born prematurely suffer from surfactant deficiency due to their immature lungs and thus they experience breathing difficulties.
When the child, belonging to Delhi itself, was brought to the hospital, doctors at the Department of Neonatology mulled several options and finally zeroed in on non-intrusive surfactant therapy.
In this method, a special liquid is instilled directly into the immature lungs of premature babies suffering from breathing difficulties. As part of the treatment, doctors delivered liquid medicine into their windpipe that goes into the lungs and helps them expand.
The successful treatment was published in the journal Current Medicine Research & Practice journal last month.
The child was kept under monitoring for three to four months. The baby maintained her heart rate and oxygen saturation during the entire procedure. She was removed from nCPAP respiratory support after 17 hours and was discharged on the 5th day of the treatment.
Doctors chose surfactant through the laryngeal mask or supraglottic airway (SALSA) – a minimally invasive method of delivering surfactant over administering surfactant through endotracheal intubation which has been a common practice.
However, doctors said that the requirement of expertise and complications are two major issues associated with endotracheal intubation. “In addition, there is also an increased risk of chronic lung disease,’ said Dr Satish Saluja, senior consultant at the Department of Neonatology.
Speaking to The New Indian, Dr Saluja said, “Under the SALSA technique, a cap is placed on the patient’s windpipe which is easy and nurses can be easily trained in this method.”
Further explaining the convenience of deploying the SALSA technique, Dr Saluja said that doctors don’t require to visualise vocal cords for placing the device. “It is relatively fast and easy. The skills required for SALSA are meagre compared to the expertise needed for intubation,” he said.
Surfactant, also called surface-active agent, is a substance such as a detergent that, when added to a liquid, reduces its surface tension, thereby increasing its spreading and wetting properties.