Project 27/28: inquiry into quality of neonatal care and its effect on the survival of infants who were born at 27 and 28 weeks in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Objective: To identify variations in standards of neonatal care in the first week of life that might have contributed to deaths in infants who were born at 27 and 28 weeks' gestation.

Methods: A case-control study was conducted of infants who were born at 27 and 28 weeks' gestation in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland during a 2-year period. Cases were neonatal deaths; control subjects were randomly selected survivors at day 28. Main outcome measures were failures of prespecified standards of care or deficiencies in care reported by regional panels assessing anonymized medical records.

Results: Failures of standards of care relating to ventilatory support (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 3.29; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.97-5.49), cardiovascular support (OR: 2.37; 95% CI :1.36-4.13), and thermal care (OR: 1.71; 95% CI: 1.21-2.43) were associated with neonatal death. Frequencies of unmet resuscitation standards (range: 3%-46%) and of delays in surfactant administration (range: 38%-40%) were similar in cases and control subjects. Panels identified significantly more deficiencies in all aspects of neonatal care in cases with the exception of the management of infection. Stratification by clinical condition of infants at birth showed a stronger association between overall standard of care and death when infants were in a good condition at birth.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest an association between quality of neonatal care and neonatal deaths, most marked for early thermal care and ventilatory and cardiovascular support. Poor overall quality of care was more strongly associated with deaths when the infant was in a good condition at birth.