Neonatal Respiratory Distress Disorders: Comparative pathologies review and diagnosis suspicion algorithm proposal

Abstract

Respiratory pathologies, along with congenital cardiac diseases, represent the main etiologies of neonatal disorders. Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome embraces several pathologies that share respiratory impairment as its main clinical manifestation. Epidemiological and risk factors for respiratory disorders, such as weeks of gestation accomplished before birth and maternal comorbidities, have been identified during the last decades. However, similar acute clinical manifestations, as well as laboratory and radiological findings, lack comprehension, which might lead to an incorrect diagnosis and delayed optimal treatment. Hyaline membrane disease, transient tachypnea of the newborn, and meconium aspiration syndrome represent the three most frequent types of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. In this paper, we describe the risk factors and pathophysiology of each disease and compare clinical manifestations, as well as laboratory and radiological findings between them. For this purpose, we analized a key termed based literature review which include Systematic Reviews, Metanalysis, case reports and book chapters as well as private hospitals epidemiologic statistic reports. Finally, we present a differential diagnosis algorithm which can be used to identify which respiratory distress syndrome the newborn manifests and consequently give prompt and optimal treatment.