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What Is Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia ? (Brong-ko-PUL-mo-ner-e Dis-PLA-se-ah)
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a chronic lung disease of babies, which develops most commonly in the first 4 weeks after birth. It mostly occurs in babies who are born more than 4 weeks before their due dates, though sometimes the babies are full term. In BPD, the lungs do not work properly and the babies have trouble breathing. They need extra oxygen and may even need help from a breathing machine. Doctors think babies get BPD because their lungs are sensitive to something damaging in the environment, such as oxygen, a breathing machine, or an infection. Premature babies are also at risk for complications in other parts of the body that are also not fully mature, including the heart, kidneys, brain, stomach, intestines, and eyes.
With new and better treatments today, most babies with BPD live. In severe cases, the baby may die.
BPD is different from respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), which occurs in the lungs of premature infants, because their lungs do not produce enough surfactant (a liquid material that coats the inside of the lungs making it easy to breathe). In the past, doctors thought that BPD was a disease mostly in babies who survived RDS. They believed that the treatment of RDS with a breathing machine and extra oxygen caused BPD. Today, babies with RDS are treated with surfactant replacement therapy and do very well. With this new treatment, BPD is not common in babies born early and weighing 3 pounds or more.
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