Abstract
Objective: To analyze morbidity and mortality of premature newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Hospital Materno Infantil from 01/01/05 to 01/01/06. Methods: Retrospective, cross sectional cases review. By descriptive statistical methods we evaluated: gestational age, birth weight, admission diagnosis, ventilatory treatment, hospitalization length, complications, discharge diagnosis and death causes. Results: In the referred period 428 newborns were admitted, 96 (22,4 %) of them were premature (10,3/1 000 live newborns), their hospitalization length averaged 16 days and 79,1 % required ventilatory assistance. The average gestational age was 32,7 weeks and the average birth weight was 1 750 g. Most of them were admitted because of respiratory difficulty syndrome (DRS) (51,0 %) and sepsis (26 %). Lowbirth weight was observed in 55,2 %, sepsis was shown in 26,0 %, and mortality was presentin 23,9 %. Death was principally secondary to DRS (14,5 %) and to sepsis (11,4 %). Conclusions: DRS is the main cause of admission and death and Sepsis the second one. More than half preterm infants showed low weigh at birth .
