Surfactant: Its Role in the Therapy of Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Over the past 2 decades major gains have been made in the area of the management of hyaline membrane disease [1–3]. Surfactant replacement therapy is probably the most exciting therapeutic milestone. It is expected that the introduction of this therapy will alleviate many of the complications associated with the classic therapeutic measures. Although surfactant is yet to be released for clinical use, this chapter summarizes the available literature and presents the results to the reader.