Survival Without Major Morbidity Up for Very Low Birth Weight

THURSDAY, June 18, 2020 (HealthDay News) — For very low-birth-weight infants in California, there was a consistent increase in survival without major morbidity from 2008 to 2017, according to a study published online June 17 in Pediatrics.

Henry C. Lee, M.D., from Stanford University in California, and colleagues examined trends in survival without major morbidity and its individual components among infants with birth weight of 401 to 1,500 g or gestational age of 22 to 29 weeks who were born in California during 2008 to 2017.

The researchers found that survival without major morbidity increased consistently in the cohort of 49,333 infants across 143 hospitals, from 62.2 percent in 2008 to 66.9 percent in 2017. There was a decrease in network variation, with a decline in interquartile ranges from 21.1 to 19.2 percent. The largest improvements were observed for necrotizing enterocolitis and nosocomial infection, while no significant change was seen in bronchopulmonary dysplasia rates. If all hospitals performed as well as the top quartile, an additional 621 infants per year would have survival without major morbidity during the final three years, accounting for an extra 6.6 percent improvement annually.

“Significant variation in rates of survival without major morbidity continues across hospitals,” the authors write. “Strategies using data to shine a light on opportunities for improvement will facilitate further gains in neonatal care.”

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