Survival and morbidity in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants.
We report the morbidity and mortality in extremely low birth weight neonates (ELBW) from a tertiary care hospital over seven years (1994-2000). Data regarding maternal and neonatal details was obtained from old records, computer database and medical files. Of the 12,807 live births during this period, 137 (1.07%) were ELBW infants. All of them were managed without surfactant. Overall, 67 infants (48.7%) survived to discharge. The most commonly encountered morbidities were hyperbilirubinemia(65%), respiratory distress(65%), sepsis(52%), intraventricular hemorrhage(29%), pneumonia (25%) and retinopathy of prematurity(24%). Need for resuscitation, pulmonary hemorrhage, seizures, acute renal failure, sclerema and air leak syndromes were significantly associated with mortality. Sepsis accounted for 41% of all deaths while immaturity was the second most important cause, accounting for 24% deaths. The average length of stay for survivors was 49 days (SD +/- 15.9 days)
Narayan
Shankar
S
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110 029, India. rajivreema@hotmail.com
Aggarwal
Rajiv
R
Upadhyay
Amit
A
Deorari
Ashok K
AK
Singh
Meharban
M
Paul
Vinod K
VK
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity