Title : Neonatal outcomes in early and late term neonates admitted in a tertiary level neonatal intensive care unit

Background: There is lack of uniformity of outcomes in babies born term (37-41 weeks).  Short-term as well as long-term outcomes have been found to be different in term babies born at different gestations.

Aims: We aimed to study the differences in morbidity patterns and outcomes in term babies born at different gestations.

Methods: This was a prospective study, which included early term (37-38 weeks) and late term (39-41 weeks) neonates admitted in our NICU. The hospital course of all the included babies were studied until discharge or death.

Results: A total of 212 were studied, out of which 71 (33.5%) babies were early term and 141 (66.5%) late term. Proportion of low birth weight babies was much higher (52% vs 34%) and incidence of meconium aspiration syndrome (15.5% vs 31.2%) and moderate to severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (23.9% vs 40%) was significantly lower in the early terms. Incidence of sepsis (22.5% vs 8.5%) and neonatal jaundice (14.5% vs 4.9%) was significantly higher in the early term babies. In spite of the differences in the morbidities in the early and late term groups, the duration of hospital stay and mortality (19.7% vs 24.8%) was comparable in both groups. (details available in the Table attached)

Conclusion: The morbidity profile of early term babies was different from late term babies. But the hospital stay and mortality in both the groups remained similar. We need further such studies in LMICs before making any recommendation for the ideal time for delivery in these countries.

Dr. Dharmendra Kumar Singh is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Postgraduate Institute of Child Health, Noida, India which is an apex tertiary level teaching Institute. He is also the Dean of the Institute. He did his MD in Pediatrics from Delhi University. He has an experience of 30 years in practicing Pediatrics and has taught numerous postgraduate and undergraduate students in her career. He is a dedicated researcher and has published more than 60 papers in reputed journals. He has authored chapters in many books.