Artificial expansion of the newborn human lung

Excised lungs from 100 stillbirths or early neonatal deaths, 25 of them being without lung pathology, were inflated by small increments of volume, noting the pressure produced by each increment, until rupture occurred. The volumes and pressures required to fill and rupture the lungs were log normally distributed. The pressure-volume data were examined mathematically to see if some simple standardized inflation procedure might expand all lungs while rupturing none. It was found that no procedure could be completely successful in initially expanding the lung without rupture but that proce-dures based on pressure should in practice be better than those based on volume; the best results should derive from the application of an initial pressure, followed if no improvement occurs by periodic increments of pressure. Occasionally at birth a baby does not breathe and it may be necessary to expand its lungs artificially. If too little is done the lungs may be insufficiently expanded to resuscitate the baby; if too much the lungs may be ruptured. Studies have been publishe