Birth weight and hospital readmission of infants born prematurely
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1Department of Child Health, King's College Hospital, London, England.
Objective:
To determine whether the hospital readmission rate of infants born prematurely was greatest in those whose birth weight was less than 750 g.
Design:
A prospective cohort study.
Setting:
Regional neonatal intensive care unit.
Patients:
Consecutive very-low-birth-weight (< 1500 g) infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit; infants with congenital abnormalities were excluded. Two-year follow-up was completed for 109 (90.8%) of these patients.
Measurements/Main Results:
Following discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit, infants were seen at 6-month intervals at which time a detailed history was taken and examinations were performed. Hospital admissions were documented and confirmed from the medical records. Infants with birth weights of less than 750 g and those of very-low gestational age (< or = 28 weeks) made up the greatest number of admissions and had the longest hospital stays. In the first year of life, the duration of stay was inversely related to birth weight.
Conclusion:
Increased survival of extremely low-birth-weight infants has important implications for resource allocation of pediatric beds.