Causes and Outcomes of Neonatal Admission in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Assuit University Children Hospital(AUCH)

The rapid decline in neonatal mortality during the past 4 decades has been attributed to improvements in neonatal intensive care. This decline was attributable to improved condition of the infants on NICU(Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) admission (improved birth weight, higher Apgar scores, and better physiologic ability).

There are multiple risk factors related to admission of newborns at NICU as low birth weight , neonatal sepsis , hypothermia , hypoglycemia , respiratory distress and other factors. These risk factors are also considered as causes of death beside prematurity and congenital malformations.

One of the most important risk factors for admission and is considered as a major cause of death is premature infants. Neonatal intensive care has become a cornerstone for treatment of premature infants worldwide.

Another group is low birth weight (LBW) infants. LBW babies face increased risk of a myriad of physical and developmental problems. Before the era of neonatal intensive care units, few VLBW infants survived. Today, babies who weigh as little as a pound and developed in the uterus for as early as 26 weeks have been known to survive. LBW babies need high cost of intensive neonatal care and adequate nursing coverage.

Neonatal respiratory morbidity in term infants is another cause of admission and death in neonates and is multifactorial in aetiology.