The Etiology,Complications and Causes of Death in Hospitalized Preterm Infants in Recent 11 Years / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo explore the etiology, comolication a nd causes of death of hospitalized preterm infants. MethodsM aternal and neonatal medical records of 834 hospitalized preterm infants from Ja nuary 1991 to Decembre 2001 were reviewed.ResultsThe statist ics showed that there was an increased tendency of hospitalized preterm infants year by year. Most of them have a definite etiology of prematurity. There were m ore cases hospitalized in winter than in other seasons. 87.6% of preterm infants were associated with different complications. The morbidity of cold injury, pne umonia, recurrent apnea and intracranial hemorrhage declined in last 6 years. Si xty-four babies died, the mortality rate was 7.7%. The smaller the gestational age and birth weight was, the higher the mortality would be. The risk factors of death were birth weight, gestational age, Apgar score at 1 minute after birth, pulmonary hemorrhage and hyaline membrane disease.Conclusion It is important to enforce the perinatal health care and the co-operation of ob stetricians and pediatricians to reduce the complications of prematurity. We sho uld set up a well organized district perinatal transport system, raise the effic iency of rescue management, reduce the mortality and improve the prognosis of pr eterm infants.