The Prevalence and mortality risk factors of Pneumothorax in Infants treated by mechanical ventilation

Pneumothorax and its related mortality isvery commonin infancy and it is intensified among infants who received the mechanical ventilation treatment. Determining the effective factors in the incidence of this disease is very importantin reducing its related mortality. Our study has done with the goal of evaluating Pneumothorax prevalence and the related mortality among infants receiving mechanical ventilation in NICU and determining the effective factors on it. Method and Materials: This descriptive analytical study was conducted at all infants hospitalized in Mahdieh University children’s Hospital. All infants with post mechanical ventilation Pneumothorax were included in this study and infants’ information about birth weight، gender of the infant، method of delivery، the site of Pneumothorax incidence، treatment with surfactant، rate of PCo2،rate of PIP، the time of Pneumothorax initialization after the mechanical ventilation and the death time after Pneumothorax prevalence were collected. P<0. 05 was set as the significance level. During in 6 years، 1864 infants were hospitalized in NICU. Of this number، 500 infants (30%) required the mechanical ventilation and 95 cases (19%) of them developed Pneumothorax. We found that 82 cases (86%) with Pneumothorax had low birth weight. Considering the primary underlying diseases، 93 percent of cases had HMD. Meconium aspiration accounted for 4% of cases and 3 percent was unknown diseases. There was no significant difference in mortality between the gender and delivery method، (p ˃0. 05). Also، there is no significant difference in mortality between receiving or not receiving surfactant (p ˃0. 05). According to the high rate of Pneumothorax prevalence and its related mortality، paying too much importance to preventable factors like enhanced nursing cares and controlling preterm labor can significantly reduce the side effects of such diseases.