Intrauterine Growth Restriction-Prediction and Peripartum Data on Hospital Care.

Abstract

Background and Objectives: We aimed to prospectively obtain data on pregnancies complicated with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) in the Prenatal Diagnosis Unit of the Emergency County Hospital of Craiova. We collected the demographic data of mothers, the prenatal ultrasound (US) features, the intrapartum data, and the immediate postnatal data of newborns. We aimed to assess the detection rates of IUGR fetuses (the performance of the US in estimating the actual neonatal birth weight), to describe the prenatal care pattern in our unit, and to establish predictors for the number of total hospitalization days needed postnatally. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from cases diagnosed with IUGR undergoing prenatal care in our hospital. We compared the percentile of estimated fetal weight (EFW) using the Hadlock 4 technique with the percentile of weight at birth. We retrospectively performed a regression analysis to correlate the variables predicting the number of hospitalization days. Results: Data on 111 women were processed during the period of 1 September 2019-1 September 2022. We confirmed the significant differences in US features between early- (Eo) and late-onset (Lo) IUGR cases. The detection rates were higher if the EFW was lower, and Eo-IUGR was associated with a higher number of US scans. We obtained a mathematical formula for estimating the total number of hospitalization days needed postnatally. Conclusion: Early- and late-onset IUGR have different US features prenatally and different postnatal outcomes. If the US EFW percentile is lower, a prenatal diagnosis is more likely to be made, and a closer follow-up is offered in our hospital. The total number of hospitalization days may be predicted using intrapartum and immediate postnatal data in both groups, having the potential to optimize the final financial costs and to organize the neonatal department efficiently.