Infants Weighing 1,000 Grams or Less at Birth: Developmental Outcome for Ventilated and Nonventilated Infants
The neurodevelopmental outcome at a mean age of 40 months was investigated in 23/25 surviving infants of birth weights ≤1,000 gm. Eight infants required intubation and assisted ventilation and 17 were not ventilated. One ventilated infant was lost to follow-up and one nonventilated infant was a victim of sudden infant death syndrome at age 6 months. Fifteen (65%) had a good outcome but the differences between ventilated and nonventilated infants were striking. Thirteen (81%) of the nonventilated group were normal, but only two ventilated survivors (28%) were normal (P < 0.05). Cicatricial retrolental fibroplasia occurred in three (43%) of the ventilated survivors and in none of the nonventilated infants (P < .02). The requirement for assisted ventilation in these very low-birth-weight infants is associated with significant morbidity. Improvement in outcome may depend as much upon better understanding and management of prenatal events as upon improvements in neonatal care.