Resumen

FURZAN, Jaime A  y  SANCHEZ, Hanny L. Recién nacido prematuro tardío: Incidencia y morbilidad neonatal precoz. Arch Venez Puer Ped [online]. 2009, vol.72, n.2, pp.59-67. ISSN 0004-0649.

Introduction: The global incidence of prematurity has increased worldwide within the last twenty years, primarily because of a continuous increment in the birth of late preterm (LPT) infants. LPT infants entail a higher risk of morbidity and mortality than their term peers. Objective: To know the frequency of LPT births and their association with the risk of acute neonatal complications, as compared with term newborns. Methods: A prospective cohort study was undertaken during a nine-month period. Global incidence of LPT infants was estimated, and relative risks of complications, admission to intensive care, respiratory distress, need of ventilatory support and death in LPT infants were measured in comparison to their contemporaneous term neonates. Results: Total frequency of prematurity was 19%. LPT infants represented 12% of total births and 66% of all preterm infants. 62.5% of all LPT infants had to be admitted because of complications, in contrast to 17.7% of all term infants. The main causes of admission were respiratory distress and jaundice. Overall mortality in LPT newborns was 4.7%, whereas in term infants it was 0.3%. LPT infants showed higher relative risks than term infants as regard to acute complications, hospitalizations, respiratory distress, need of ventilatory support and death. Conclusions: The frequency of LPT births in our institution is high. Two thirds of all preterm infants are LPT newborns. Late prematurity is associated with a high risk of hospitalizations, respiratory distress and death, as compared to term birth.  Greater attention needs to be paid to the management of LPT infants.

Palabras clave : Late preterm infant.