Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the clinical outcome of late preterm infants (LPI) week by week. Our patients were divided into three groups according to gestational age (GA); group A: 34 - 34+6/7 weeks, group B: 35 - 35+6/7 weeks and group C: 36 - 36+6/7 weeks. Out of 10650 deliveries, 1280 (12%) were late preterm, 1004 (78.5%) of which were carried out by caesarean section. A total of 1527 infants were studied with 565 (37%) requiring admission to NICU while 5 deaths were recorded (neonatal mortality rate was estimated at 3.2 ‰). Our study demonstrates that the rate of respiratory disorders, sepsis, feeding disorders and abnormal neurological examination in LPIs was inversely proportional to their GA. Furthermore, infants of 34+0/7 - 34+6/7 weeks of GA required a longer hospitalization in the NICU than their more mature peers.
Copyright and license
Copyright © 2015 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.