Artificial Amniotic Fluid and its Benefits to Premature Babies (Research Paper Sample)

Artificial Amniotic Fluid and its Benefits to Premature Babies
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Artificial Amniotic Fluid and its Benefits to Premature Babies
Abstract
An effort to assist in premature infants survival and creation of artificial womb is gathering considerable care, through ethics concerns means given its remedies implications. Considering a small study done by Published Tuesday in Nature Communication, found that nearly a month, the artificial womb is a concern seemed to promote healthy development for the premature fetus. A scientist has only considered fetal lambs only. Unfortunately, studies show that the group tested the device on very premature human babies within 4-5 years span. This made what could seem an important development for treating premature infants, and significant improvement is that about eight lambs survived the test. Part of the leading causes of infant mortality and neonatal mortality is preterm birth. Despite significant advances in clinical neonatal care, the challenge persists and remains unsolved. With the most recent development of artificial amniotic fluid and artificial womb, the hope for the future is bright. Trials using lambs at the same stage of development as humans born prematurely have revealed that the artificial amniotic fluid can promote growth and development of the various categories of premature babies. The major advantage of the artificial amniotic fluid is that it promotes growth outside the mother’s womb as if the child is still in the same environment. The whole improvement shows normal development of recreation.
Here what the device looks like, an elaboration of connection of umbilical cord connected to a machine server as a placenta.
Introduction
For human beings, infant’s critical point comes at about 27 weeks olds, and the lungs have to develop enough to allow for the child breathing exposure. Usually, this artificial womb removed at that state reduces the danger of other infections and blood clots effects. One of the leading causes of neonatal deaths and childhood morbidity is preterm births. The challenge of preterm birth has remained a major issue in prenatal care despite profound efforts by scientist to solve it over the years. The infants born before their time is due to requiring placing in a care system that equivalent to the intrauterine environment in which they lived before their birth. The setting is meant to support the full development of organs that to maturation outside the mother’s womb. The aim is to improve the survivability and reduce the chances of infant mortality that is every common among the preterm babies. A well-developed physiologic system would allow the exchange of gases through the umbilical circulation, where the heart acts at the main pump that drives the entire system and completes the circuit. There have been efforts in the past geared towards the same objective of increasing the chances of survival of the infant. The efforts have relied heavily on the traditional extracorporeal membrane oxygenation technology, where an external a circuit driven by pump used to support they perfusion of the fetus. In principle, these efforts have shown that it is likely to allow fetal survival. However, the technology has not achieved the physiologic homeostasis or by extension the necessary threshold to sustain clinical application.
Here is another illustration considering human beings situations
The current technology called Extracorporeal Transitional Environment for Neonatal Development (EXTEND) has been tried on lambs born prematurely at ages equivalent to 22-24 weeks of gestation of humans. The system has successfully supported the sheep for four weeks showing stable growth, hemodynamic and development. The innovation has the potential to change the dynamics and management of clinical outcomes in the preterm infants' population forever.
Preterm Births and Associated Challenges
During a newborn’s time the intensive care unit (NICU), critical development of brain occurs, accompanied by the improvement of the pathways that control speech skills. Preterm mortality remains a major challenge and cause of neonatal deaths. Statistics in 2011 showed that about 6% of all the live births in the United Sates were severely premature, and were born after less than 28 weeks of gestation (Wilson et al., 48). The preterm births accounted for about 33% of all infant deaths in the same year. The morbidity associated with the preterm births was 80% for all children between 22 and 28 weeks of gestation (Anderson et al., 20). The technological advances in neonatal care have helped to improve the outcomes of the infant mortality of preterm births. This has pushed the chances of survival from 22 to 23 weeks. The period of 22 to 23-week correlates with the time when the lungs are still developing which significantly affects the ability of the infant to perform the successful gas exchange.
The pulmonary parenchyma not fully developed which is a major limiting factor to the full development of respiratory functions to facilitate survival. The pulmonary parenchyma is not fully developed which is a major limiting factor to the full development of respiratory services to promote survival. The institution of ventilator support based on gas exchange plays a critical role in saving the lives of the preterm infants. However, in many cases, it results in bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) (Islam et al., 102). BPD leads to inadequate or improper lung development. This condition is widespread among the preterm infants and becomes a significant cause of chronic lung diseases among the severely preterm infants who survive. The extrauterine environment created by devices that made for that purpose increase the survival chances of the children, at the same time reducing the possible long-term morbidity associated with extremely premature infants.
The Simulated Placenta
The development of cardiopulmonary bypass support was part of the efforts that led to the creation of an artificial placenta. The results came from some small experiments conducted in the 1960s in various clinical studies (Gray et al., 62). The experiments entailed perfusion of fetal lambs and cannulation using the umbilical vessels. The perfusion supported for about forty minutes to about two days. The lives of the animals sustained in the short period. The experiments terminated because of subsequent deaths arising from uncontrolled infections, gradual decline in cardiac function together with other complications (Glass et al., 44). The innovation that allowed gas exchange in preterm babies promoted the invention of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Miura et al.,12). After that breakthrough, it triggered massive interest in the making of an artificial placenta. The result was that various experiments involving umbilical annulations and circuits supported by pumps done all over the globe with the focus being how to improve gas exchange for the preterm infants.
Breakthrough experienced from experiments conducted from1980s to the early 2000s mainly in Japan. The central aspect of the devices meant to the extent to which the gadgets could support lives of the preterm goats. The results had significant limitation from the perspectives of physiological and technical issues. The studies showed high levels of innovativeness and helped to over the restrictions identified by previous scholars and investigators. More precisely, passively filled reservoirs introduced in the circuit, which contributed to reducing the likelihood of heart failure emanating from after-load. More so, the pools added to improving hemodialysis resulting in experiments that lasted 236 hours. The studies reported issues such as iatrogenic complications, sepsis, and thromboembolic events (Partridge et al., 90). In some cases, animals that did not experience iatrogenic complications often died due to cardiac failure while others suffered circulatory depression, hydros fetal is, arrhythmias and some passed away in the circuit. The result was a study in which two goats survived for 494 hours for the first goal and 543 hours for the second goat. Nonetheless, the two goats succumbed to respiratory insufficiency because they could not get mechanical ventilation.
Pump-supported fetal ECMO showed circulatory overload, which indicated a high level of preload imbalance caused by the circuits, which eventually led to heart failure. Since the circuit has a larger priming volume than that of the placental reserve, the amount of distribution is highly increased (Hogan son, et al.). Besides, the circuits have a larger surface area, which leads to the growing requirement of anticoagulation systemically. The result here is high mortality and mobility associated with hemorrhagic complications and thromboembolic issues. The blood cells also suffer from mechanical damage during the perfusion driven by pump leading to hemolysis and could cause clotting (Stocker and Horton, 26). Due to immaturity in clotting factor, platelet function among the newborns and regulatory issues, neonates under the ECMO suffer more compared to adults of the same group. It is for this reason that the ECMO is only suing for infants that weigh more than two kegs or are 34 weeks in gestation.
The current ECMO technology may have more disadvantages compared to the pump less circuit. The pump less technology has significantly lower priming volume, and the ability of innate to pump blood using its heart that is similar to the umbilical-placental unit (Miura et al. 2012). However, efforts of coming up with a pumpless system have produced mixed and very discouraging results in the past. An experiment by Remora and colleagues with pump less circuit using MC3, Ann Arbor, MI, (hollow fiber oxygenator) and umbilical cannulation with four lambs all of which were near term showed that the system could only support the animals...