Note the following:
Most neonates with bronchopulmonary dysplasia ultimately survive.
As infants, patients are at increased risk for repeated and serious pulmonary infections (eg, respiratory syncytial virus [RSV]), asthma, cardiac dysfunction, and neurologic impairments.
Infants with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia remain at high risk for pulmonary morbidity and mortality during the first 2 years of life.
Rehospitalization for impaired pulmonary function is most common during the first 2 years of life.
Hakulinen and associates found a gradual decrease in symptom frequency among children aged 6-9 years compared with infants aged 0-2 years.
In children and adults with a history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, high-resolution chest CT reveals lung abnormalities that are directly correlated with the degree of pulmonary dysfunction.
The infant with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia is at high risk for long-term pulmonary and neurologic sequelae.
Persistent right ventricular hypertrophy or fixed pulmonary hypertension unresponsive to oxygen supplementation is associated with a poor prognosis.
Northway followed up pediatric patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia to adulthood and reported that patients had airway hyperreactivity, abnormal pulmonary function, and hyperinflation, as noted on chest radiography.
Bader et al and Blayney et al found persistence of respiratory symptoms and abnormal pulmonary function in children aged 7 and 10 years.