Survival of extremely premature babies

Neonatology has come on by leaps and bounds.

But concern remains about the extremely premature baby.

We no their survival prospects are poor.

And we worry that we may help them to survive only to be burdened with great handicap.

Donahue et al from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center found no improvement in survival rates in the decade 1993 - 2003.

Mortality rates.

The apparent worsening of prognosis at 23 weeks was not statistically significant.

As you might expect, there were more interventions in the later triennium, but to no avail in terms of mortality.

One hopes that there might be improvement in relation to long-term disability.