Short-term outcome of very low-birth-weight infants in a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia

Published data on short-term outcomes of very low birth weight infants from Saudi Arabia are limited. In the present study, our objective was to describe and analyze the outcomes of very low birth weight infants admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit and to compare the results with data published by the National Institute of Child Health and Development. This study was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from a single tertiary care center over a three years period. Biodemographic data and data regarding multiple outcome measures were analyzed for infants with birth weight of 1500 g or less. Data were obtained from our neonatal intensive care unit database. Our results included a total of 186 infants with birth weights of 1 500 g or less. Of these infants, 1 54 [82.8%] survived to discharge. Seventy-six [40.9%] were male, and mean [SD] gestational age [GA] was 29 [2.9] weeks with a range of 21 weeks, 6 days to 36 weeks, 2 days. Mean [SD] birth weight was 1062 [302] g with a range of 420 to 1495 g. Fifty-seven [30.6%] infants were characterized as small for gestational age. Antenatal steroids were given to 74.2% of mothers. Eighty-five percent of infants were born by cesarean section. The rate of bronchopulmonary dysplasia was 17.7%, patent ductus arteriosus 31.2%, intraventricular hemorrhage 12.9%, periventricular leukomalacia 3.8%, necrotizing enterocolitis 7.5%, retinopathy of prematurity 28.3%, and late-onset sepsis was 21.9%. In this population of very low birth weight infants, survival rates and complications of prematurity were comparable to international data

need for hospital-based neonatal palliative care programs in Saudi Arabia

The terms palliative care, supportive care, and comfort care are used to describe individualized care that can provide a dying person the best quality of life until the end. The term [end-of-life care] is also used in a general sense to refer to all aspects of care of a patient with a potentially fatal condition. While the concept of palliative care is not new, it has only recently been applied to the neonatal population. To the best of our knowledge, none of the neonatal intensive care units [NICUs] in Saudi Arabia have adopted a neonatal program for palliative care. We believe the main reason is lack of knowledge of such programs and the fear of being accused of being heartless and cruel by providing comfort care for dying babies. Comfort care begins with the diagnosis of a life-threatening/terminal condition, and continues throughout the course of illness regardless of the outcome. In this prespective, our aim is to introduce these programs for caregivers in the NICUs in Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, we have reviewed the current recommendations in establishing neonatal palliative care programs and discussed some of the social and religious aspects pertaining to this issue