Assessment of morbidity and mortality in newborns with late prematurity: experience of a reference maternity in the northeast of Brazil.

BACKGROUND

Late preterm infants show high rates of adverse perinatal outcomes. The aim of this study is to assess the morbidity and mortality of newborns (NBs) with late preterm birth in a reference maternity hospital in northeastern Brazil.

METHODS

Retrospective cohort study from March 1st to July 15th, 2017. A total of 204 NBs with gestational age between 34 and 36 weeks and six days were evaluated and compared to 205 full-term NBs (39 and 40 weeks and six days). Perinatal outcomes including neonatal morbidity were evaluated. The Student's t and ANOVA tests were used for normal variables, and the Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests for non-normal variables.

RESULTS

Late preterm infants showed significant higher rates of hypothermia, hypoglycemia, respiratory distress syndrome, jaundice in need of phototherapy (67.6%), admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU), and difficulty breastfeeding compared to full-term NBs (P<0.001). Respiratory distress was the main indication for the admission of late preterm infants (P<0.001) to neonatal ICU. Late preterm infants had a longer hospital stay (6.9 vs. 3.7 days, P<0.001). There were three deaths in the group of late preterm NBs, and none in the group of term NBs.

CONCLUSIONS

Late preterm NBs presented higher rates of morbidity and mortality when compared to full-term NBs.