outcome of neonatal admissions to the intermediate care unit in new children hospital, Cairo University

ABSTRACT

Neonatal morbidity and mortality is a public health problem in developing countries. The neonatal period is considered a highly vulnerable time for an infant, who is completing many of the physiological adjustments required for extra uterine existence. This retrospective study was conducted over a period of one year in the New Children Hospital of Cairo University. The aim of our work was to identify the morbid conditions that affect the admitted cases, to calculate morbidity and mortality rates during the study period and to compare the collected data of this work with data of a previous study of the year 1998/1999. This comparison will be used as a tool to show variation in hospital quality of care. The total number of patients was 210 infants, number of males was 126 [60%] and number of females was 84 [40 %]. Mortality was influenced by gestational age i.e. the higher the gestational age the lower the mortality. Mortality was also influenced by birth weight as follows In neonates weighing from 1001-1499 gm, the mortality rate was 76.9%, in neonates weighing from 1500-2499 gm, the mortality rate was 35% while in neonates weighing more than 2500 gm, the mortality rate was 27%. In addition, mortality is also related to diagnosis, as the highest mortality was seen in cases of respiratory diseases [33.9%] while the lowest mortality was seen in infants of diabetic mothers [1.5%]