RT Book, Section
A1 Malcolm, William F.
SR Print(0)
ID 1105544979
T1 Origins of the Premature Infant Nursery and Follow-Up Care
T2 Beyond the NICU: Comprehensive Care of the High-Risk Infant
YR 2015
FD 2015
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-174858-2
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1105544979
RD 2024/04/25
AB Long  before  the  first  neonatal  intensive  care  units  (NICUs)  opened  in  the  1960s,  physicians  treated  premature  infants  and  debated  their  future.  To  be  sure,  the  smallest  such  infants  likely  died  within  hours  at  home,  victims  of  what  we  would  recognize  as  respiratory  distress  syndrome.  The  fate  of  those  born  1  to  2  months  early,  however,  hung  in  the  balance.  In  19th-century  American  cities,  where  some  15%  to  20%  of  all  infants  died  before  reaching  their  first  birthday,  premature  babies  were  the  most  vulnerable  of  all.  Many  succumbed  to  a  vicious  cycle  of  hypothermia,  poor  feeding,  and  infection  in  the  first  weeks  of  life.  Physicians  rarely  did  anything  to  save  them,  and  resigned  themselves  to  seeing  this  high  mortality  as  a  law  of  nature,  not  amenable  to  medical  effort.