Extremely preterm infants in Tunisia: Where are we now?

Background: Extremely preterm infants are newborns born before 28 weeks of gestation. Survival of these immature newborns depends on resuscitation and the quality of care during hospitalization.

Objective: To determine survival and neurologic outcomes at2 years after extremely preterm birth.

Methods: It is a retrospective multicentric study in 5 neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in 2012-2013.All live births less than 28 weeks gestation were included.

Results: A total of 109 births were recorded. Prenatal corticosteroids were given in 47% of cases. Mean weight was 989g and mean age was 26 weeks gestation. Ninety percent of patients had respiratory distress syndrome and 67% of them needed respiratory support. Surfactant was given to 29% of newborns. The mortality rate atdischarge was 76%.The first cause of mortality was nosocomial infections. At thecorrected age of 2 years, 27% of survivors had abnormal neurologic outcome.

Conclusion: In our study, survival and neurologic outcomes ofextremely preterm infants were poor.In this high-risk population, improving perinatal care remains a challenge to improve long-term outcome in Tunisia.