Importance Extremely preterm infants contribute disproportionately to neonatal morbidity and mortality. Objective To review 20-year trends in maternal/neonatal care, complications, and mortality among extremely preterm infants born at Neonatal Research Network centers. Design, Setting, Participants Prospective registry of 34 636 infants, 22 to 28 weeks’ gestation, birth weight of 401 to 1500 g, and born at 26 network centers between 1993 and 2012. Exposures Extremely preterm birth. Main Outcomes and Measures Maternal/neonatal care, morbidities, and survival. Major morbidities, reported for infants who survived more than 12 hours, were severe necrotizing enterocolitis, infection, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, severe intracranial hemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, and/or severe retinopathy of prematurity. Regression models assessed yearly changes and were adjusted for study center, race/ethnicity, gestational age, birth weight for gestational age, and sex. Results Use of antenatal corticosteroids increased from 1993 to 2012 (24% [348 of 1431 infants]) to 87% (1674 of 1919 infants];P  Conclusions and Relevance Among extremely preterm infants born at US academic centers over the last 20 years, changes in maternal and infant care practices and modest reductions in several morbidities were observed, although bronchopulmonary dysplasia increased. Survival increased most markedly for infants born at 23 and 24 weeks’ gestation and survival without major morbidity increased for infants aged 25 to 28 weeks. These findings may be valuable in counseling families and developing novel interventions. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:NCT00063063.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/articlepdf/2434683/joi150102.pdf

Trends in Care Practices, Morbidity, and Mortality of Extremely Preterm Neonates, 1993-2012.

超出生体重児に対する早期デキサメサゾン投与の有用性 : National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal research Network報告 (海外誌掲載論文の和文概要とそれに対するコメント)

Obstet Gynecol Surv 2016;71(1):7–9Since the 1990s, there have been considerable changes in care for mothers in preterm labor and for extremely preterm infants. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network has monitored changes in this

Trends in Care Practices, Morbidity, and Mortality of Extremely Preterm Neonates, 1993-2012

BackgroundBetween-hospital variation in outcomes among extremely preterm infants is largely unexplained and may reflect differences in hospital practices regarding the initiation of active lifesaving treatment as compared with comfort care after birth. MethodsWe studied infants born between April 2006 and March 2011 at 24 hospitals included in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network. Data were collected for 4987 infants born before 27 weeks of gestation without congenital anomalies. Active treatment was defined as any potentially lifesaving intervention administered after birth. Survival and neurodevelopmental impairment at 18 to 22 months of corrected age were assessed in 4704 children (94.3%). ResultsOverall rates of active treatment ranged from 22.1% (interquartile range [IQR], 7.7 to 100) among infants born at 22 weeks of gestation to 99.8% (IQR, 100 to 100) among those born at 26 weeks of gestation. Overall rates of survival and su...

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Between-Hospital Variation in Treatment and Outcomes in Extremely Preterm Infants

Importance Despite apparent progress in perinatal care, children born extremely or very preterm (EP/VP) remain at high risk for cognitive deficits. Insight into factors contributing to cognitive outcome is key to improve outcomes after EP/VP birth. Objective To examine the cognitive abilities of children of EP/VP birth (EP/VP children) and the role of perinatal and demographic risk factors. Data Sources PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO were searched without language restriction (last search March 2, 2017). Key search terms included preterm , low birth weight , and intelligence . Study Selection Peer-reviewed studies reporting intelligence scores of EP/VP children ( Data Extraction and Synthesis MOOSE guidelines were followed. Data were independently extracted by 2 researchers. Standardized mean differences in intelligence per study were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Heterogeneity in effect size across studies was studied using multivariate, random-effects meta-regression analysis. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcome was intelligence. Covariates included gestational age, birth weight, birth year, age at assessment, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, small for gestational age, intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis, and postnatal corticosteroid use. Results The 71 included studies comprised 7752 EP/VP children and 5155 controls. Median gestational age was 28.5 weeks (interquartile range [IQR], 2.4 weeks) and the mean age at assessment ranged from 5.0 to 20.1 years. The median proportion of males was 50.0% (IQR, 8.7%). Preterm children had a 0.86-SD lower IQ compared with controls (95% CI, −0.94 to −0.78, P I 2  = 74.13; P P Conclusions and Relevance Extremely or very preterm children born in the antenatal corticosteroids and surfactant era show large deficits in intelligence. No improvement in cognitive outcome was observed between 1990 and 2008. These findings emphasize that improving outcomes after EP/VP birth remains a major challenge. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia was found to be a crucial factor for cognitive outcome. Lowering the high incidence of BPD may be key to improving long-term outcomes after EP/VP birth.

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Cognitive outcomes of children born extremely or very preterm since the 1990s and associated risk factors: A meta-analysis and meta-regression

Up-to-date estimates of the health outcomes of preterm children are needed for assessing perinatal care, informing parents, making decisions about care, and providing evidence for clinical guidelines. To determine survival and neonatal morbidity of infants born from 22 through 34 completed weeks' gestation in France in 2011 and compare these outcomes with a comparable cohort in 1997. The EPIPAGE-2 study is a national, prospective, population-based cohort study conducted in all maternity and neonatal units in France in 2011. A total of 2205 births (stillbirths and live births) and terminations of pregnancy at 22 through 26 weeks' gestation, 3257 at 27 through 31 weeks, and 1234 at 32 through 34 weeks were studied. Cohort data were collected from January 1 through December 31, 1997, and from March 28 through December 31, 2011. Analyses for 1997 were run for the entire year and then separately for April to December; the rates for survival and morbidities did not differ. Data are therefore presented for the whole year in 1997 and the 8-month and 6-month periods in 2011. Survival to discharge and survival without any of the following adverse outcomes: grade III or IV intraventricular hemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy of prematurity (stage 3 or higher), or necrotizing enterocolitis (stages 2-3). A total of 0.7% of infants born before 24 weeks' gestation survived to discharge: 31.2% of those born at 24 weeks, 59.1% at 25 weeks, and 75.3% at 26 weeks. Survival rates were 93.6% at 27 through 31 weeks and 98.9% at 32 through 34 weeks. Infants discharged home without severe neonatal morbidity represented 0% at 23 weeks, 11.6% at 24 weeks, 30.0% at 25 weeks, 47.5% at 26 weeks, 81.3% at 27 through 31 weeks, and 96.8% at 32 through 34 weeks. Compared with 1997, the proportion of infants surviving without severe morbidity in 2011 increased by 14.4% (P < .001) at 25 through 29 weeks and 6% (P < .001) at 30 through 31 weeks but did not change appreciably for those born at less than 25 weeks. The rates of antenatal corticosteroid use, induced preterm deliveries, cesarean deliveries, and surfactant use increased significantly in all gestational-age groups, except at 22 through 23 weeks. The substantial improvement in survival in France for newborns born at 25 through 31 weeks' gestation was accompanied by an important reduction in severe morbidity, but survival remained rare before 25 weeks. Although improvement in survival at extremely low gestational age may be possible, its effect on long-term outcomes requires further studies. The long-term results of the EPIPAGE-2 study will be informative in this regard.

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Florence Rouget

Papers

Survival and morbidity of preterm children born at 22 through 34 weeks' gestation in France in 2011: results of the EPIPAGE-2 cohort study.