Outcome of live-born infants in Barbados requiring neonatal care, before and after the introduction of a neonatal intensive care unit - abstract

ABSTRACT

A review of the outcome of neonatal care over a 72-month period (November, 1987 - October, 1993) was retrospectively analysed. The study looked at the changing trends of survival, as influenced by the development of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in November, 1990. During the study period, 4,838 neonatal admissions were analysed; 57 percent were pre-NICU and 42.5 percent post-NICU. Significantly more babies were ventilated in the post-NICU era (p < 0.00001) and survival proportionately increased (p = 0.0027). Although there was no statistical difference in the overall survival in the two eras (p = 0.435), the data indicated that the very low birth weight babies and those ultimately ventilated survived longer in the NICU era (p = 0.0018). With increased survival of premature babies, and the impact of more sophisticated neonatal care, it is likely that one will see more significant trends in the unit-specific mortality. In addition, the surviving children must be carefully looked at to determine their neurodevelopmental outcome in a society with limited health resources (AU)