[Impact of perinatal mortality in multiple pregnancies over total perinatal mortality in a hospital in Monterrey, Nuevo León].

Background: The incidence of multiple pregnancies has increased on the last decade resulting in a rise of premature and underweight newborns infants, with increase of the perinatal morbidity and mortality.

Objective: To determine the impact of perinatal mortality of multiple pregnancies in the total perinatal mortality.

Patients And Method: perinatal mortality rate of multiple pregnancies treated in the Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad No. 23, Monterrey, Nuevo León (Mexico) were analized, from 2002 to 2008. The prevalence of multiple pregnancies, the rate of premature births, the incidence of low-birth weight products and perinatal mortality was estimated. The difference between overall mortality and multiple pregnancy rate was measured by chi2.

Results: Of the 144,114 births, there were 1076 (0.8%) fetal deaths and 1,617 (1.10%) neonatal deaths. There were 110 high-order fetal pregnancies (more than three fetuses): 92 triplets, 14 quadruplets, 3 quintuplets and 1 sextuplet, producing a total of 353 newborns. Multiple pregnancies represent 2.8% (59/2093) of the total perinatal mortality (p = 0.3). 79.9% (1674/2093) of the total perinatal mortality were newborns weighing less than 2500 g. In the group of multiple pregnancies, all perinatal deaths occurred in products weighing less than 2500 g.

Conclusions: The perinatal mortality of multiple pregnancies does not impact significantly overall perinatal mortality.