All issues > Volume 32(2); 1989

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1989;32(2):149-157. Published online February 28, 1989.

Influences of Premature Rupture of Membranes on the Newborn Infant.

Kyoung Sim Kim¹, Young Ok Park¹, In Sung Lee¹, Ki Bok Kim¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Kwangju Christian Hospital, Kwangju, Korea

Received: June 22, 1988;  Accepted: September 22, 1988.

Abstract

A comparative study on the frequencies of premature birth, neonatal sepsis, asphyxia, perinatal death and respiratory distress syndrome was carried out between 1309 newborns with premature rupture of membranes (PROM) and the normal group of 4636 newborns without PROM among all 5945 babies delivered at Kwangju Christian Hospital for the 2-year period starting from March 1985. The results are sumrnarized as follows: 1) The overall incidence of PROM was 22.0% with no yearly variations. 2) Ten % of all babies with PROM were born prematurely, significantly higher than the incidence of PROM in all newborn cases with 5.6%. 3) The incidence of neonatal sepsis in the PROM group (1.4%) was five times higher than in the normal group (0.3%) (p<0.005). The incidence was not related to the gestational age at birth, but increased with increasing time interval after PROM. 4) The incidence of neonatal asphyxia in PROM group (4.4%) was twice the normal group (1.9%), and the premature babies had greater incidence in both groups. AIso, a positive correlation was found with increasing time interval after PROM. 5) Perinatal death was higher in PROM group (4.7%) than in the normal group (3.5%), and it also increased with time interval after PROM. 6) Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) was found in 0.7% of babies with PROM, whereas l.4% of babies in the normal group had the syndrome, indicating significantly lower incidence in the PROM group. Premature babies had higher incidence of RDS in both normal and PROM groups, but the latter had an incidence amounting to only 1/ 4 of the former. And it tended to diminish with increasing time interval after PROM.

Keywords :Premature rupture of membranes, Prematurity, Sepsis, Neonatal asphyxia, Perinatal death, RDS