Population-based data on full-term neonates with severe morbidity

Abstract

Full-term infants comprise 20–40% of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) population [1, 2] and 28% of annual stillbirths in Australia [3–5]. When admitted to tertiary neonatal intensive care units they have a mixed group of clinical entities and a high mortality rate[2, New South Wales NICU audit database, unpublished data]. There are almost no data on risk factors for and outcome of term babies admitted to tertiary NICUs, except for specific problems such as neonatal encephalopathy which represents one-fifth of this population in the NICU database. This paper describes the preliminary data from a unique Australian NICU network which aims to collect population-based data on this neglected area of perinatal medicine. Full-term infants comprise 20–40% of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) population [1, 2] and 28% of annual stillbirths in Australia [3–5]. When admitted to tertiary neonatal intensive care units they have a mixed group of clinical entities and a high mortality rate[2, New South Wales NICU audit database, unpublished data]. There are almost no data on risk factors for and outcome of term babies admitted to tertiary NICUs, except for specific problems such as neonatal encephalopathy which represents one-fifth of this population in the NICU database. This paper describes the preliminary data from a unique Australian NICU network which aims to collect population-based data on this neglected area of perinatal medicine.