Surfactant therapy in 2011

Surfactant therapy has revolutionised neonatal respiratory care since its introduction in the 1980s and is now recommended routinely early in the course of respiratory distress syndrome. Recent guidelines have attempted to achieve a balance between the role of surfactant therapy, which requires at least a short period of mechanical ventilation, and a more conservative approach using continuous positive airway pressure alone. In this review current recommendations for optimising the use of surfactant are described.