[Epidemiologic profile of the neonatal population in Trapani]

Since 1984 we utilized computer data systems to store patient information. This study examines epidemiological statistic data relative to all newborns in the Trapani's Hospital from 01.01.84 to 31.12.86 and moreover, it examines the characteristic traits of the pathologic newborns admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the same period, divided into inpatients (born in our hospital) and outpatients (born in other hospitals and transferred by ambulance). The elaborated data emphasized that the preterm infants (babies of less than 37 completed weeks of gestational age) is 4.55%; low birth weight infants (less than 2500 gms) rate is 5.2% with a prevalence almost alike in other regions. The prevalence of the VLBW (less than 1500 gms) significantly differs from other italian regions and european countries. The VLBW percentage, in Trapani, is steadily 1.1% of all newborns, with remarkable difference from other provinces and countries (0.32% in France, 0.5% in Marche, 0.7% in Sassari and in Trento). Besides, the rate of the newborns with weight less than 1001 gms in Trapani is 0.3%, whereas in other regions is about 0.1%. If we consider that in our case-report 59.5% of the infants dead from 0 to 28 days is made up by newborns with weight less than 1500 gms and 45.5% of them have a birth weight less than 1000 gms, if we also consider the high incidence of severe asphyxia (33.8%) in the death causes, we understand how the VLBW decrease to the levels of the other regions would bring about a remarkable decrease of the neonatal death rate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)