Morbidity Profile and Immediate Outcome of Late Preterm Neonates Compared to Term Neonates in a Rural Tertiary Care Hospital of Gujarat

Abstract

Background: Late premature infants are born near term, but are immature. As a consequence, late preterm infants are at higher risk than term infants to develop morbidities. Although late preterm infants are the largest subgroup of preterm infants, there is a very limited data available on problems regarding late preterm infants in rural India. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study using previously collected data from neonates born at Dhiraj Hospital and neonates who were born outside but admitted at SNCU of Dhiraj Hospital, Piparia, Vadodara district, Gujarat, India between January 2015 to December 2015. Results: 168 late preterm infants and 1025 term infants were included in this study. The need for SNCU admission is significantly higher in late preterm compared to full term (41.07% vs 2.04%). Morbidities were higher in late preterm neonates compared to full term neonates. Sepsis (4.76% vs 1.07%), TTN (10.11% vs 2.04%), hyperbilirubinemia (19.04% vs 9.36%), RDS (1.78% vs 0.09%), hypoglycemia (1.78% vs 0.29%), PDA (1.78% vs 0.58%), risk of major congenital malformation (2.38% vs 0.58%). Need for respiratory support was 5.95% in late preterm vs 2.04% in full term neonates. Immediate neonatal outcome in terms of death and DAMA (non-salvageable) cases was poor in late preterm neonates compared to full term neonates (1.19% vs 0.78%). Conclusions: Late preterm neonates are at higher risk of morbidities and mortalities. They require special care. Judicious obstetric decisions are required to prevent late preterm births.