Relationship between Wilson-Mikity syndrome and the new bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Abstract

In 1960, Wilson and Mikity1 published a report of 5 cases of a new form of respiratory disease in the premature infant. An additional 29 cases were reported from our center in 1969.2 In the intervening years, similar cases had been reported from other centers in the United States, England, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, and Nigeria, indicating that these cases composed a definite clinical entity of wide geographic distribution. In the early 1960s, none of these infants had received assisted ventilation. Ventilatory support for premature infants became the standard of treatment in the late 1960s. The Wilson-Mikity syndrome (WMS) was swallowed up by bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the chronic effects of artificial ventilation first reported by Northway et al.3 These were a result of damage to the lung resulting in fibrosis, inflammation, and metaplasia. The reported infants of WMS all were premature with a medium weight of 1280 g.1,2 The smallest was 830 g, and 26 of the 35 were 2000 g. …