Neonatologia - wczoraj, dziś i jutro

The neonatology has relatively short history in comparison to the history of medicine. The term 'neonatology' was introduced in the 1960's past century and derives from the words: neonatus - newborn and logos - science. The beginning of interest in the newborn should be connected with socio-political transformation in the 19th century and founding the Welfare Movement. This resulted in creating specialized hospital departments, which improved recognition of needs of this particular patient group. The introduction of incubator in care of newborn infants, use of oxygen and surfactant were the mile stones for the newborn medicine. The next important advance was application of assisted ventilation with continuous positive airway pressure in the management of respiratory distress syndrome. More and more immature preterm neonates are saved in consequence of the improvement of neonate care. The next difficulties were overcome in recent years - the neonatal surgery in utero and gene therapy. Such rapid evolution of neonatology predicts a great future for this branch of medicine also in the 21st century.