Improved outcome for infants at the limits of viability

Factors associated with survival and freedom from cerebral parenchymal lesions and severe retinopathy were examined in a cohort of 250 extremely preterm infants of less than 26 weeks gestation admitted to a regional neonatal intensive care unit between 1982 and 1993. There were 99 survivors of whom 73 were free of major early morbidity.

Logistic regression showed that both survival and survival free from early morbidity were independently related to gestation, birth weight, birth period and antenatal steroid prophylaxis.