Hyaline membrane disease is a disease in which mechanical ventilation is applied as a treatment of choice. Consisting in obtaining positive pressures in airways, this type of treatment is supposed to lead to the dilation of neonatal lungs. The airiness of lung changes over time and is dependent on the surfactant-producing activity of pneumocytes type II. The aim of the study was to evaluate the degree of lung airiness in the course of mechanical ventilation treatment, as well as to evaluate selected morphometric parameters of neonatal lungs depending on the duration of the treatment. The Quantimet 500+; Color Option image analysis system was used to carry out the morphometric analysis of lung tissue taken post-mortem from infants treated with or without mechanical ventilation. The Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test was made as a statistical analysis that compared morphometric parameters of neonatal lung tissue. The study showed that mechanical ventilation treatment leads initially to an improved airiness of neonatal lungs. Morphological reparation of lunch tissue, occurring between the third and the fifth day of treatment, is characterised by a significant decrease in morphometric parameters, which requires an intensification of therapy at that period. Morphometric parameters revealed poor correlation during treatment with mechanical ventilation, and their dependence on therapy duration was of stochastic nature.

Keywords: Hyaline Membrane Disease, lung airiness, surfactant, neonatal patholohy