A study of 8 year neonatal deaths (1982-1989) of Toa Payoh Hospital.

A study of 233 neonatal deaths out of 30910 livebirths over an 8 year period in the Toa Payoh Hospital is done. The Hospital has since ceased providing obstetric and neonatal intensive services from April 1990 due to restructuring of hospital care. The Neonatal Mortality Rates (NNMR) from 1982-1989 ranged from 6.52 to 9.55 and there was no significant fall in trend (p = 0.13). One hundred and thirteen (48.5%) neonates who died were below 1500gm (VLBW). Various causes of neonatal deaths were examined and there was a decline in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) death rates (p less than 0.0002). Deaths due to asphyxia (p greater than 0.05) and infections (p greater than 0.05) have not declined significantly over the same period. It is also observed that less VLBW babies died over this 8 year period and the VLBW mortality rates (p less than 0.02) have declined. However, the congenital malformation mortality has also not declined significantly (p = 0.92) though early study (1972-1981) showed an increasing trend of malformation deaths among total neonatal deaths (p less than 0.02). Improvement in VLBW and RDS management has not contributed to a significant decline in NNMR. It is observed that more VLBW babies were born during this 8 year period (p = 0.01) especially so in the less than 1000 gm group (p = 0.0005) and the survival of VLBW babies has improved (45.5% to 75.8% alive) as a result of advances in neonatal intensive care. The reasons for increase in incidence of VLBW births in the past few years are not known.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)