Long distance neonatal transport--the need of the hour.

ABSTRACT

This study compares the inter hospital long distance transports undertaken by a qualified transport team versus those done by other means. This was a retrospective descriptive comparative study of the neonatal transports done during a period of 33 months from various maternity and pediatric centers to a pediatric tertiary referral centre. We found that biochemical and temperature disturbances are more common in babies transported on their own and a specialized neonatal transport service could improve the survival of these babies. Survival was 96.2% (154/160) and 89% (114/128) in the two groups, respectively (P=0.03).