Abstract:Objective To investigate the effect of using pulmonary surfactant (PS) during different time periods of mechanical ventilation in the treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS) on blood gas and lung function indicators in children. Methods A total of 80 children with NRDS who received treatment at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Nanjing Jiangbei Hospital from February 2021 to February 2023 were selected and divided into observation group A, observation group B, observation group C and control group randomly (n=20, each). All the children received routine mechanical ventilation and comprehensive treatment for 72 hours. In the observation group A, B and C, the same dose of PS (70 mg/kg) was slowly injected into the intake pipe intubation within 0.5 h, 2-4 h and 4-6 h after mechanical ventilation, respectively. The blood gas indexes, lung function indexes, clinical efficacy and complications of the four groups before mechanical ventilation and 6 hours after PS treatment were compared. Results The improvement of blood gas indexes (PaO₂, PaCO₂, pH value) in the observation group A, B and C were significantly better than those in the control group at 6 h after PS (P＜0.05). The pulmonary function indexes, spontaneous breathing times, lung compliance and blood oxygen saturation recovery time of children in observation group A, B and C after using PS were prolonged in turn, but they were significantly better than those in control group (P＜0.05). The total efficiency of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (98.33% vs 80.00%, χ²=5.760, P=0.016). The incidence of complications in the observation group during treatment was significantly lower than that in the control group (3.33% vs 25.00%, χ²=6.314, P=0.012). Conclusion The combination of mechanical ventilation and PS treatment can improve the prognosis of children with NRDS. The earlier the use of PS, the better the effect.