title: [The focus in neonatology].
abstract: During the last years, neonatology has greatly improved. In the last decade, mortality and morbidity have decreased: mortality from respiratory failure of prematurity has decreased from 22% to 12%, mortality of the very low birthweight infants under 1000 g fell from 56% to 35% and mortalities related to asphyxia have diminished from 21% to 12% and to malformations from 33% to 28%. Prematurity is now the first cause of neonatal mortality. During this period, the number of babies under 1000 g has increased 4-fold and the number of multiple births increased more than 2-fold from 3% to 7% of the live births of our hospital. Attitudes towards the premature infant have changed, especially towards the extremely small (called the micropremies). The number of disabled children has increased in parallel with the better survival of the very immature newborns who till recently were not resuscitated.
authors.affiliation: Service Néonatal de Soins Intensifs et Non Intensifs, Hôpital Erasme, U.L.B.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vermeylen
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Destrée
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Abramowicz
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vermeulen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pardou
mesh_terms: D001238:Asphyxia Neonatorum / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001724:Birth Weight; D002423:Cause of Death; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000517:prevention & control; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D009099:Multiple Birth Offspring; D009359:Neonatology / Q000639:trends; D012127:Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Newborn / Q000517:prevention & control; D016414:Resuscitation Orders; D015996:Survival Rate