Death in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Koo,  So Eun; Kim,  Heeyoung; Park,  Kyoung A; Lim,  Gina; Park,  Hyewon; Lee,  Byoung Sop; Kim,  Ellen Ai Rhan; Kim,  Ki Soo; Pi,  Soo Young

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Society of Neonatology 2009;16(2):154-162.
Published online November 1, 2009.

Death in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

So Eun Koo, Heeyoung Kim, Kyoung A Park, Gina Lim, Hyewon Park, Byoung Sop Lee, Ellen Ai Rhan Kim, Ki Soo Kim, Soo Young Pi

Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. kskim@amc.seoul.kr

신생아 중환자실의 사망에 관한 연구

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Abstract

PURPOSE
Death is an important problem for physicians and parents in neonatal intensive care unit. This study was intended to evaluate the mortality rate, causes of death, and the change of mortality rate by year for infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.
METHODS
We retrospectively surveyed the medical records of the infants who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at Asan Medical Center and who died before discharge between 1998 and 2007. Gestational age, birth weight, gender, time to death and the underlying diseases related to the causes of infant deaths and obtained from the medical records and analyzed according to year.
RESULTS
A total of 6,289 infants were admitted and 264 infants died during the study period. The overall mortality rate was 4.2%. For very low and extremely low birth weight infants, the mortality rate was 10.6% and 21.4%, respectively. There was no significant change in the mortality rate during the study period. Prematurity related complications and congenital anomalies were the conditions most frequently associated with death in the neonatal intensive care unit. of the infant deaths 37.1% occurred within the first week of life.
CONCLUSION
Even though a remarkable improvement in neonatal intensive care has been achieved in recent years, the overall mortality rate has not changed. To reduce the mortality rate, it is important to control sepsis and prevent premature births. The first postnatal week is a critical period for deaths in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Key Words: Mortality; Neonatal intensive care unit; Cause of death; Prematurity