Exogenous surfactant treatment in children with ARDS

Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved exogenous surfactant in the early 90s for the treatment of neonates with Hyaline Membrane Disease (HMD), many studies have focused on enlarging its indications for others types of lung injuries and for other age groups. Although in the past 20 years no studies have shown clear results about the efficacy of exogenous surfactant treatment in paediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), many of them were able to point out and better define very important aspects of this treatment like dosage, timing, ways of administration and usage of different types of surfactant (natural and synthetic). In this review we retrace the development of studies looking at the role of exogenous surfactant treatment in paediatric ARDS