The last fifty years of neonatal surgical management

Neonatal surgical mortality has steadily fallen over the last five decades. Improved survival does not appear to be related to the introduction of new operative procedures. Most of the basic procedures were developed by 1960. Eight developments appear to be responsible: (1) The growth of pediatric surgery resulted in widespread availability of neonatal surgeons and dissemination of knowledge about newborn surgical emergencies. (2) The parallel growth of pediatric anesthesia, beginning in 1946, provided specialized intraoperative management of the neonate. (3) Understanding neonatal physiology is the key to successful management; major advances occurred between 1950 and 1970. (4) New inventions revolutionized patient care; the transistor (1947) made it possible for medical devices to sense, amplify and control physiologic responses and opened the communication and computer age. (5) Neonatal mechanical ventilation had a prohibitive mortality and was seldom utilized; the development of CPAP and a continuous flow ventilator in the 1970s allowed safe ventilatory support. (6) Total parenteral nutrition (1968) prevented starvation that frequently affected infants with major anomalies. (7) The effective treatment of infection began with the clinical use of penicillin (1941); antibiotics have reduced mortality but infants suffering from the septic syndrome have a prohibitive mortality; cytokine, proinflammatory agent research, and the development of anti-inflammatory and blocking agents in the 1980s have not affected mortality. (8) The establishment of newborn intensive care units (1960) provided an environment, equipment, and staff for effective physiologic management.