Honors Program
Honors in Technology
Date of Award
12-2020
Thesis Professor(s)
Dr. William H. Blanton
Thesis Professor Department
Engineering Technology, Surveying, and Digital Media
Thesis Reader(s)
Dr. Joseph Shrestha, Dr. Marko N. Kostic
Abstract
In this paper, old as well as new technological findings to decrease premature infant mortality are reviewed. This paper discusses fetal development throughout pregnancy from conception to full-term status as well as fetal lung development specifically from conception until full-term status. Several ideas to rapidly develop and mature fetal lungs are discussed such as mothers ingesting artificial surfactant supplements, either independently or coupled with antenatal corticosteroids, as well as intra-amniotic instillation prior to 28 weeks gestational. Drawbacks regarding these two are mentioned as well such as the fetus’s lungs not being mature enough to use the artificial surfactant leading into the idea of researching ways to rapidly develop fetal lungs, either week-by-week or stage-by-stage. Lastly, if the baby is born pre-maturely and is severely underdeveloped, research is currently being done on an artificial womb that the baby can be placed in to simulate a uterus where the fetus can develop on a normal timeline as he or she would in the mother’s womb.
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Withheld
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Kirk, Megan, "Technology Aiding in Neonatal Lung Developmental Care" (2020). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 594. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/594
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Biomedical Devices and Instrumentation Commons, Circulatory and Respiratory Physiology Commons, Developmental Biology Commons, Pediatrics Commons