Mortality and Morbidity of 500- to 1,499-Gram Birth Weight Infants Live-born to Residents of a Defined Geographic Region Before and After Neonatal Intensive Care

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Abstract
All very low-birth-weight infants live-born to residents of an urban southern Ontario [Canada] county were studied before (1964-1969) and after (1973-1977) introduction of neonatal intensive care. Mortality at hospital discharge decreased from 89.4 to 77.6% among infants whose birth weights were 500 to 999 g and from 37.6 to 22.8% among infants with birth weights of 1000-1499 g. The families of 121/150 (81%) and 134/151 (89%) of all children from the 2 cohorts who were discharged from the hosptial alive were surveyed. At follow-up, 7/121 (6%) and 4/134 (4%) had died. Major damage was reported for 13/121 (11%) and 18/134 (13%) of the children. Neonatal intensive care was associated with a significant reduction in mortality, but there was no significant change in morbidity.