Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: Twenty-five Years Later

The 25th anniversary of the recognition of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) occurs in 1992. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia was first described in 1967 in prematurely born infants with severe respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) treated with intermittent positive pressure mechanical ventilation and oxygen supplementation who developed a new type of chronic lung disease.1 Prior to treatment with mechanical ventilation, infants with RDS had a high mortality rate and either died by about 4 days of age or survived without respiratory difficulty or radiographic abnormality at 7 days of age.2 The descriptive name of the new chronic disease, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, was suggested by the progressive lung pathology which was characterized by injury and repair affecting both the parenchyma and the airways with alteration of the normal growth of the lung.