Lung damage in infants major worry
Lung damage is one of the major problems faced in babies
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-11-02 07:09 GMT
Hyderabad: Lung damage is one of the major problems faced in babies with congenital birth defects, stated experts on World Foetus Day observed on November 1. Out of every 100 live births, two suffer from congenital defects. And lungs are the first to be affected as pre-term births do not allow proper development of lungs.
Dr Chinmaye Ratha, expert in fetal medicine said, “Research in fetal medicine has provided a lot of insight into the development of the baby and one of the things which we have found of crucial importance is ensuring that there is complete development of the lungs. The anatomy of lungs develops in 26 weeks but the lung tissues, fluid and also the capability to allow the body to manage the air exchange is completed only in 34 weeks. For that reason, we are now analyzing these aspects during a pre-term delivery.”
Dr Dinesh Kumar Chirla, director, intensive care services at Rainbow Hospitals said, “There are cases of congenital defects where successful surgeries are done but still the baby does not survive which means that there is a need to look into the functioning of the lungs before birth. Preserving lung volume is found to improve survival after birth and we are looking at these aspects both in research and medicine.”
For this reason, gynaecologists as well as pediatricians are coming together for fetal medicine where special attention and care are paid to the critical organs which are important for survival.