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. 2017 Oct 6;7(1):12769.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-12911-5.

Outcomes of 23- and 24-weeks gestation infants in Wellington, New Zealand: A single centre experience

Mary Judith Berry  1   2 , Maria Saito-Benz  3   4 , Clint Gray  3 , Rebecca Maree Dyson  3   5 , Paula Dellabarca  4 , Stefan Ebmeier  6 , David Foley  7 , Dawn Elizabeth Elder  3 , Vaughan Francis Richardson  4
Affiliations

Outcomes of 23- and 24-weeks gestation infants in Wellington, New Zealand: A single centre experience

Mary Judith Berry et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Optimal perinatal care of infants born less than 24 weeks gestation remains contentious due to uncertainty about the long-term neurodevelopment of resuscitated infants. Our aim was to determine the short-term mortality and major morbidity outcomes from a cohort of inborn infants born at 23 and 24 weeks gestation and to assess if these parameters differed significantly between infants born at 23 vs. 24 weeks gestation. We report survival rates at 2-year follow-up of 22/38 (58%) at 23 weeks gestation and 36/60 (60%) at 24 weeks gestation. Neuroanatomical injury at the time of discharge (IVH ≥ Grade 3 and/or PVL) occurred in in 3/23 (13%) and 1/40 (3%) of surviving 23 and 24 weeks gestation infants respectively. Rates of disability at 2 years corrected postnatal age were not different between infants born at 23 and 24 weeks gestation. We show evidence that with maximal perinatal care in a tertiary setting it is possible to achieve comparable rates of survival free of significant neuroanatomical injury or severe disability at age 2 in infants born at 23-week and 24-weeks gestation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of the study cohort. GA indicates gestational age. DS indicates delivery suite. All percentages are calculated with the number of live births as the denominator.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan-Meier survival estimate curve. Day-by-day actuarial survival rate of periviable infants born at the Wellington Hospital. Data is stratified by gestational age at birth: 23 weeks (solid line) and 24 weeks (dashed line). Only those infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit are included. (A) Survival to 1-year chronological age (B) Enhanced view of survival over first 30 days of life.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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