文本框: THE CHANGING FACE OF PERINATAL ASPHYXIA IN A NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
Dagoglu T, Ovali F, Samanci N.
Istanbul University, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Capa-Istanbul-Turkey

Objective: To analyze the trends in the incidence of perinatal asphyxia (PA) in a level III nursery, admitting only inborn patients and which is one of the main referral centers of Istanbul.
Methods: The medical records of all patients born between 1990 and 2000 were analysed at the computerized data base. The demographic characteristics, obstetric management, perinatal events, postnatal physical and laboratory findings, Apgar scores and neonatal outcomes were evaluated. These data were analysed separately for 3 periods, namely between years 1990-1992, 1993-1995 and 1996-2000
Results:	In the first period between 1990-1992, the perinatology department and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were in the process of establishment. There were 12549 births and the rate of PA was 2,2 %. In the second period between 1993-1995, there were 13180 births and the rate of PA increased to 3,1 % which was attributed to the high number of referrals from other hospitals and high number of pregnancies without antenatal care. In the last period of 4 years, the total number of births decreased with regard to previous years. In this period, total number of births was 12154 and the rate of PA dropped slightly to 2,7 % which was thought to be due to improved antenatal care, supplied by experienced medical staff and developed technical facilities.
Conclusion: PA remains a significant problem of newborn babies. Improved antenatal care is very important for the prevention of PA and advanced technical and medical staff are required for the management of these babies. The long term prognosis of these patients will be presented later.
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