Historical Perspectives: Beyond the First Breath: Hyaline Membrane Disease and Constructing the Neonatal Patient, 1959–1975

Introduction

How do the lungs of newborns support their first breaths, and why do some infants develop respiratory distress? This crucial research question emerged in the 1950s and was investigated by numerous physicians and scientists, including the American pediatrician Mary Ellen Avery, who devoted her career to the regulation of infant respiration. In a 1964 lecture, Avery drew a distinction between the intrauterine and extrauterine environments stating that “It is clearly at birth that regular rhythmic respiration begins. Something is turned on, something must be different just after birth from the way it was before, and this something must be essential to the regulation of respiration.”(1)

Although Avery was a physician by training and not a scientist, research played a significant role in her career and led to her prominence as one of the investigational leaders of respiratory distress syndrome, which was known as hyaline membrane disease (HMD) during the time of Avery’s research. Avery focused on the role of surfactant, specifically its deficiency in HMD, challenging the accepted view at the time that HMD was caused by an obstruction in the lungs due to the aspiration of hyaline membranes. (2)(3)(4) Avery’s act of shifting the understanding of HMD from an obstructive disease to one of a biochemical deficiency was all the more striking given her role as a pediatrician and not a formally trained laboratory scientist. Biographers have estimated that her findings on HMD and their subsequent translation to treatment in the form of surfactant replacement have saved the lives of more than 800,000 infants. (2)

The discovery of surfactant deficiency as the cause of HMD in 1959 not only challenged the accepted understanding of the disease at the time, but …