Retrospective analysis of diseases in hospitalized preterm infants in the past 10 years

Objective: To explore the trend of preterm infant diseases in the past 10 years.Methods: The clinical data of 801 hospitalized preterm infants from 1997 to 2006 were reviewed.The patients were divided into groupⅠ(1st 5 years) and groupⅡ(2nd 5 years).Results: The preterm infants in groupⅡ had a higher hospitalized rate than groupⅠ(P<0.05),and there was an obvious increase of preterm infants of low gestational age and low birth weight in groupⅡ.The fatality rate in groupⅡwas obviously lower compared with that of group Ⅰ(P<0.01);the occurrence of asphyxia,sepsis and scleredema decreased in groupⅡ(P<0.05) and the mortality of hyaline membrane disease declined significantly.Conclusions: The hospitalized rate of preterm infants is elevated,especially the preterm infants of low gestational age and low birth weight,and the total morbidity declined.Early intervention should be emphasized for common diseases such as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy,pneumonia,jaundice and so on.Management for the infants with extremely low-birth-weight should be strengthened.