title: Long-term outcome for the tiniest or most immature babies: survival rates.
abstract: This article focuses on the survival rates of the most immature babies considered viable from around the world. It discusses the various factors in terms of definition, inclusion criteria and policy which can result in marked differences in the apparent rates of delivery (all births), live birth, admission to neonatal intensive care and ultimately survival seen between otherwise similar countries, different regions of the same country, and even adjacent hospitals. Such variation in approach can result in major differences in reported survival and consequentially have large effects on apparent rates of adverse long-term outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. Electronic address: lks1@le.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Lucy K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: Elizabeth S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Draper
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Field
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D052577:Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight; D062071:Infant, Extremely Premature; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015996:Survival Rate
keywords: Birth registration; Extremely preterm birth; Infant mortality; Survival