Short-term outcome for very-low-birth-weight infants with prolonged oxygen requirement

Although Johannesburg Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit's survival rates are similar to those of First-World countries, it has been the impression of ward staff that ventilated very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants who cannot be weaned from high concentrations of oxygen and/or high inflation pressures within 7-10 days constitute a group with a poor prognosis. This study confirms previous studies showing that the early neonatal mortality rate is twice as high as the late neonatal mortality rate. It also confirms that mortality is related to birth weight and peak pressure and shows that VLBW infants with high oxygen and pressure requirements after 1 week do indeed constitute an extremely high-risk group with a short-term morbidity rate of 70-80% and a mortality rate of almost 50%.