Current Trends in Neonatal and Pediatric Respiratory Care

Though there are many similar therapeutic modalities and technologies that exist between pediatric and adult respiratory care, there are many self-evident differences, from the age-specific diseases themselves to the more ob-vious differences in anatomy and pathophysiology of the cardiopulmonary system of infants and children. The first RESPIRATORY CARE Journal Conference specific to infants and children was held over a decade ago in Cancún, Mex-ico in December 1990.1,2 The proceedings were published in the June and July 1991 issues of RESPIRATORY CARE, months after the inception of the National Board for Re-spiratory Care’s (NBRC) Neonatal/Pediatric Respiratory Care Specialty credential examination in March of 1991. The specialty of neonatal and pediatric respiratory care appears to have come full-circle over the past 12 years since those landmark events in 1991. This and the next issue of the Journal provide the proceedings from the 31s