Extremely preterm infants in Tunisia: Where are we now?

BACKGROUND

Extremely preterm infants are newborns born before 28 weeks of gestation. Survival of these immature newborns depends on resuscitation and the quality of care during hospitalization.

OBJECTIVE

To determine survival and neurologic outcomes at2 years after extremely preterm birth.

METHODS

It is a retrospective multicentric study in 5 neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in 2012-2013.All live births less than 28 weeks gestation were included.

RESULTS

A total of 109 births were recorded. Prenatal corticosteroids were given in 47% of cases. Mean weight was 989g and mean age was 26 weeks gestation. Ninety percent of patients had respiratory distress syndrome and 67% of them needed respiratory support. Surfactant was given to 29% of newborns. The mortality rate atdischarge was 76%.The first cause of mortality was nosocomial infections. At thecorrected age of 2 years, 27% of survivors had abnormal neurologic outcome.

CONCLUSION

In our study, survival and neurologic outcomes ofextremely preterm infants were poor.In this high-risk population, improving perinatal care remains a challenge to improve long-term outcome in Tunisia.