Respiratory Distress in Full and Post Term Neonates: Prevalence, Etiologies and Outcomes in a Tertiary Health Center in Yaoundé

Abstract

Introduction: Respiratory pathologies are top listed amongst neonatal morbidities. Our objective was to describe the clinical features, causes and treatment of respiratory distress (RD) in full and post term neonates in a tertiary health center in Yaoundé, the Essos Hospital Centre (EHC). Patients and Method: This was a retrospective study. Full/post term neonates with RD from January 2017-December 2018 were included. Main parameters: incidence of RD, etiologies, risk factors for severity and mortality. Results: We included 186 neonates among 2312 newborn babies. The RD prevalence rate was 8%. Sex ratio of 2.15 was favoring male, median gestational age of 38 weeks. Clinical signs of RD were dominated by a Silverman score above 4/10 in 64%. Main etiologies were pneumonia (44%), followed by transient tachypnea (35.4). Perinatal asphyxia (OR = 9.412, P = 0.005) and cyanosis (OR = 6.509; P 0.001) were worsening RD, while caesarian section was protective (OR = 0.412; P = 0.050). Mortality rate (MR) was 10.4%. Therapeutic measures briefly consisted in oxygen therapy for 98.9% of patients and probabilistic antibiotic therapy. Conclusion: Neonatal pneumonia was the preeminent etiology of RD in this population; the MR was high.