Short-term outcome of premature neonates admitted to NICU & newborn services at Amirkola children hospital in 2010

Introduction: Improvements in newborn intensive care led to decreased mortality, but increased the morbidity rates of preterm infants. This study have designed to evaluate the short- term outcome in premature infants admitted to NICU at Amirkola Children Hospital(ACH) , northern Iran from Mar20,2010- Mar21,2011 Methods: All the premature infants admitted to NICU and newborn services from Mar20, 2010- Mar21, 2011 entered to the study .Data like Death, NEC, IVH, and ROP were gathered. Gestational of age determined based on New Ballard Score.IVH and NEC diagnosed with brain ultrasonography and radiology. ROP diagnosed by indirect ophthalmoscopic exam made by a retinologist and if it was advanced then referred for therapy. Hearing test done with ABR technique and then if it was failed, referred to repeat ABR and any patients with hearing loss referred for rehabilitation with hearing aid. We followed up patients for hearing loss and blindness until the 2-2.5 years of age. Results: In 159 premature neonates who admitted in this period 63.5% were boy and 36.5% was girl. Seventy nine percent delivered by C/S and 21% through NVD .The most frequent GA group was 34-37 week (56%).The mean CRIB score of the babies was 5.6±2.4. The mortality premature neonates were %9.7. The rate of IVH, NEC and threshold ROP were 9.5%, 3.1%, and 10.3% respectively. We have 1 neonate with blindness and 3 neonates with hearing loss. Conclusion: The finding of this study reveals an improvement in the short-term outcome in premature infants' admitted to NICU at ACH, although there is some distance between the present condition and the real favorable outcome.