A study of causes of neonatal deaths

Abstract

Summary The causes of neonatal deaths have been studied in the light of an analysis of a consecutive autopsy series of 1,247 infants who died at less than 1 month of age. There were 573 full-term and 674 premature infants. Underlying cause and immediate cause of death were taken into account. In the classification of the cases, anatomic causes of death were chiefly used, but clinical histories were also taken into consideration. The distribution of deaths from these different causes in different stages of the 10 year period under study was compared. The commonest underlying causes of death were malformations, infections, intracranial hemorrhages, hyaline membranes, and kernicterus. The commonest immediate causes of death were infections, hyaline membranes, and large hemorrhages in organs other than the brain. Infection was present as an underlying or immediate cause of death in more than half of the cases. During the period under study the number of cases of malformation increased while those of infection decreased as an underlying cause of death. The total number of intracranial hemorrhages increased only a little but within this group an increase in the number of cases of nontraumatic hemorrhage and a decrease in those of traumatic hemorrhage were found. No change was seen in the incidence of infection as the immediate cause of death in cases of malformation and intracranial hemorrhage. The number of cases of intracranial hemorrhage in which hyaline membrane was an immediate cause of death was found to have increased. There was a relative increase in the younger age groups simultaneously with these changes in the distribution of the causes of death.