Professional care of mother and child
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The addition of replacement surfactant therapy to current neonatal intensive care techniques has brought about a significant reduction in the severity of, and mortality from, moderate-to-severe RDS in premature infants. Although exogenous surfactant is relatively easy to administer, its use should be limited to those skilled in handling critically-ill infants on ventilators. While its introduction has been a major step forward, it is not the whole answer to the vexing problem of respiratory distress syndrome.