All issues > Volume 35(1); 1992

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1992;35(1):44-50. Published online January 15, 1992.

Clinical Observation on Very Low Birth Weight Infants

Jong Soo JS Lee¹, Mi Young MY Yeo¹, Byung Hak BH Lim¹, Sang Geel SG Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Fatima Hospital, Taegu, Korea

Abstract

Charts of very low birth weight infants weighing less than 1500 gms at birth were revieved and the results were analyzed. Infants were 152 in numbers, admitted to nursery in Fatima Hospital from January 1986 to December 1989 including outborns.
Results
were as follow: 1) The incidence of very low birth weight was 5.78/1000 among 26270 newborn infants. 2) Maternal high risk factors on very low birth weight infant included premature rupture of membrane(43 cases), breech presentation(25 cases), fetal distress(24 cases), eclampsia(21 cases) and twin(21 cases) respectively. 3) Of 152 cases, the survival rate of intensive care group was 25%(5/20) while the survival rate of conservative care group was 34.8%(46/132). 4) Surival rate is considered to increase as the gestational age and birth weight increase. 5) Only one case survived among the infant weighing below 999 gm in intensive care group, while no one case survived among the infant weighing over 1000gm from 1986 to 1988 in the intensive care group. However 4 cases(4/8) receiving intesive care survived in 1989. In the conservative care group, no one case weighing below 999 gm survived. Survival rates were 50%, 50%, 58% and 50% respectively, from 1986 to 1988. So any significant changes were not observed. 6) Mortality rate of very low birth weight infants falls to 50%(36/72) by 24hours, 25%(18/72) by 3 days, 10%(7/72) by 28 days and 1%(1/72) by over one month. 7) the incidence of discharge against advise was 19.1%. As the birth weight increased, the incidence reduced accordingly

Keywords :Very low birth weight infant