title: Prognostic factors determining mortality in surgical neonates.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To assess the prognosis of surgical neonates at admission and the factors responsible for mortality in neonates.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective study was conducted in a tertiary level hospital over 15 months and various clinical and biochemical parameters were collected and analyzed using STATA(®) and SPSS(®).
  
  
  RESULTS
  On multivariate analysis of 165 neonates, early gestational age, respiratory distress and shock at presentation were the factors of poor prognosis in neonates. The factors could be related to poor antenatal care and sepsis acquired before transfer of the baby to the nursery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The improvement in antenatal care and asepsis during transfer and handling the babies is of utmost importance to improve the prognosis of surgical neonates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Surgery, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, INDIA.
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Manchanda
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Surgery, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, INDIA.
authors.forename: Yogesh Kumar
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Sarin
authors.forename: Siddharth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramji
keywords: Mortality; Prognosis; Scoring systems; Surgical neonates