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Pulmonary Function in the Perinatal Period

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Clinical Management of Mother and Newborn

Abstract

To appreciate the formidable task that confronts the infant at the onset of breathing at birth, one must consider the state of the fetal lungs. The air spaces and terminal lung units are filled with liquid (the “liquid lung”), the volume of which is approximately the same as the functional residual capacity of the lung (67). When air breathing is generated at birth, the literally drowned lung must rapidly become a stable gas exchanger as the uteroplacental circulation is severed. Initially, air is dispersed in the prevailing liquid, producing gas entrapment in the lung primarily in the form of foam (the “foam lung”) (66). During this short transitional state the vital cardiopulmonary adaptations of the newborn infant begin: alveolar-capillary gas exchange; increased pulmonary vascular perfusion; and functional elimination of right-to-left flow through the ductus arteriosus and foramen ovale. For the normal newborn infant, the foam lung disappears promptly, leaving behind a relatively liquid-free and stable air lung.

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Authors
  1. Emile M. Scarpelli
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, 10461, Bronx, New York, USA

    Gertie F. Marx M.D.

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Scarpelli, E.M. (1979). Pulmonary Function in the Perinatal Period. In: Marx, G.F. (eds) Clinical Management of Mother and Newborn. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6173-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6173-5_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6175-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-6173-5

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