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Survival rates for extremely preterm infants improve in U.S.: study

Xinhua, September 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Extremely preterm infants, those born before the 28th week of pregnancy, are surviving in greater numbers and escaping serious illness in the United States, a 20-year study said Tuesday.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reviewed the birth records of more than 35,000 premature infants born from 1993 to 2012 in 26 U.S. academic medical centers.

It found overall survival increased significantly in infants born at 23 and 24 weeks. Of those born at 24 weeks, for example, only 52 percent survived in 1993 while 65 percent survived in 2012.

The study also showed a higher number of premature infants survived without major illnesses. For infants born at 27 weeks, for example, survival without major illness increased from 29 percent in 1993 to 47 percent in 2012.

Overall, survival without major health problems increased about two percent per year for infants born at 25 to 28 weeks, with no change for infants born at 22 to 24 weeks.

Among the survivors, the researchers also saw an increase in the rate of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a complication of prematurity often resulting from respiratory therapy.

"Our findings show that progress is being made and outcomes are improving," lead author Barbara Stoll, chair of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine, said in a statement. "This information should be valuable in counseling families and in developing new interventions to help prevent and treat significant health problems in these infants."

The researchers attributed the boost in survival to advances in maternal and newborn care, including an increase in antenatal corticosteroid use, an increase in cesarean delivery and a decrease in delivery room intubation.

In an accompanying editorial, Roger Soll of the University of Vermont stressed that there is "no obvious breakthrough therapy emerging in the coming years" that help extremely preterm infants survive.

"Although the neonatal-perinatal medicine community can be proud of the progress made, an additional commitment must be made to further improvements in the decades to come," Soll wrote. Endit