LETTERS

Surfactant replacement after acute massive milk aspiration in a very low birthweight infant

F Natale, F Calzolari, A Castronovo, L Guadalupi, M De Curtis

Department of Pediatrics, "La Sapienza" University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy

Correspondence to:
Dr Fabio Natale, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Viale Regina Elena 324, 00161 Rome, Italy; fab.natale@libero.it

Accepted 30 January 2009

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Massive milk aspiration during infant feeding is a severe event causing respiratory distress, asphyxia and sudden death.¹ To date, only experimental models have shown that administration of exogenous surfactant is a successful treatment for acute lung injury induced by acidified formula, or human breast milk, aspiration.^{2 3} We describe a case of massive milk aspiration successfully treated with surfactant administration in a very low birthweight infant.

A 1180 g male infant of 30 weeks’ gestation was delivered by caesarean section due to variable decelerations in cardio-tocographic readings. The infant’s Apgar scores were 8 and 9 at 1 and 5 min, respectively. An umbilical venous catheter was placed, parenteral nutrition started and empiric antibiotic therapy (ampicillin plus gentamicin) instituted. The infant did not need respiratory support or supplemental oxygen after delivery and started enteral feeding on day 1.

On day 11, the infant vomited while being fed breast milk by gavage. The . . . [Full text of this article]

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