Pulmonary interstitial emphysema and continuous positive airway pressure in a premature infant

Pulmonary interstitial emphysema PIE is a recognized sequel of high pressure mechanical ventilation. Nevertheless, with the improvement in perinatal medical care, PIE started to be seen in spontaneously breathing infants. We present a 29-week-old girl who developed PIE on the first day of life, while she was on nasal continuous positive airway pressure, and was successfully managed with high frequency oscillatory ventilation. There is a paucity of these cases in the literature. We report on the occurrence of this entity, early reorganization, and the possible associated or causation factors