Abstract
. In the 18 months, January 1979 to July 1980, 149 infants who weighed ≤1500g at birth were cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit at Queen Victoria Medical Centre, Melbourne. During this period the neonatal survival rate for infants weighing 501–1000g was 57% and for those weighing 1001–1500g was 91%. Of the 123 neonatal survivors, four died within the first year after birth. One hundred and seventeen (98%) of 119 surviving infants have been assessed at follow-up. At a mean age of 12.3 months (corrected for prematurity), 11 (9%) survivors had physical handicaps only and four (3%) had developmental delay, including one child who was also physically handicapped. Nine of the 14 children with a defined handicap were considered to have significant functional handicap. Therefore 108 (92%) survivors are able to function within the normal range. These results suggest that the chance of survival for infants of very low birthweight has continued to increase whereas their handicap-rate has remained stable and relatively low.
Published Version
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