title: [Reducing the incidence and morbidity of very low birth weight premature infants after maternal transport to a perinatal center].
abstract: An improvement in the mortality and morbidity of very low-birth-weight infants could be confirmed by the regionalisation of high-risk pregnancies. The immaturity of premature newborn limits the therapeutic success. Our aim is therefore on the one hand, to make an early diagnosis of patients at risk of threatened premature delivery, and secondly, to provide intensive therapy for women already showing symptoms of premature delivery, to achieve the best possible prognosis. A reduction in the number of very low birth-weight infants and their mortality and morbidity rate appears to be possible if the pregnant women can be placed in a perinatal centre in good time; if the pregnancy can be prolonged and fetal lung maturation can be induced by betamethasone; if the delivery can be managed carefully, avoiding hypoxaemia, shock situations, and trauma; in certain cases this would mean performing a caesarean section by isthmo-cervical longitudinal incision; if primary neonatal care is performed by an experienced neonatologist. With the standard of neonatology as it is today, a considerable increase in the survival rates of very low birth-weight infants can hardly be expected. Nevertheless, to cut down their numbers is the biggest potential for the future reduction of the infant mortality rate.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Rudolf Virchow, Frauenklinik Charlottenburg, Abteilung für Geburtsmedizin, Berlin.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luttkus
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rey
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Metze
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Dudenhausen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Obladen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D005323:Fetal Monitoring; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012127:Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Newborn / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D015145:Tocolysis; D014187:Transportation of Patients
vernacular_title: Senkung von Häufigkeit und Morbidität sehr untergewichtiger Frühgeborener nach mütterlichem Transport in ein perinatales Zentrum.