Morbidity pattern and mortality of neonates admitted in a tertiary level teaching hospital in Bangladesh.

This retrospective study was conducted to determine the morbidity and mortality pattern of neonates admitted in to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH). A total of 4826 neonates were admitted and reviewed during the period January 2003 to December 2003 in MMCH. Neonatal admission comprises 31.6% of total paediatric admission. Majority of the patients were 1 to 3 days of age and male. The top five causes for neonatal admission in MMCH were perinatal asphyxia (38.7%), low birth weight (25.7%), septicemia (19.2%), neonatal jaundice (5.9%), meconium aspiration syndrome (2.9%). The death rate of neonatal admission was 20.6%. The mortality was found among the neonates admitted with low birth weight (28.1%), perinatal asphyxia (22.8%), septicemia (18.9%). The average duration of hospital stay was higher among the septicemia patients than neonates suffering from other diseases. The finding of this study could be used by professionals, managers and policy makers to design neonatal health programmes to achieve millennium development goal (MDG) by the year 2015.