A Quantitative Review of Mortality and Developmental Disability in Extremely Premature Newborns

Objectives: To summarize the literature on mortality rates and prevalences of major neurodevelopmental disabilities and to examine trends of these outcomes over time in extremely premature neonates.

Data Sources: MEDLINE was used to search the English literature for studies published since 1970 reporting on both mortality and disability in infants born at or before 26 weeks' gestation (extremely immature [EI] cohort), with a birth weight of 800 g or less (extremely small [ES] cohort), or subgroups of these.

Study Selection: Studies were included in the analysis if all of the following were reported: mortality; direct examination of 75% or more of the survivors; and the proportion of patients with at least 1 of the following disabilities: cerebral palsy, mental retardation, blindness, and deafness. Studies reporting cohorts included as a subset of cohorts in another study were excluded. Forty-two studies providing mortality and disability data for 20 cohorts of 4116 EI infants and 38 cohorts of 4345 ES infants born after 1972 met the inclusion criteria.

Data Extraction: Data were abstracted from all studies that met these criteria by two of us (J.M.L. and D.E.W.), independently; the data were then cross-checked to ensure accuracy.

Results: Survival averaged 41% for EI infants and 30% for ES infants, and it increased significantly with time. In contrast to mortality, the prevalences of major neurodevelopmental disabilities among survivors have not changed over time. The most common major disability was mental retardation, found in 14% of EI and ES survivors. Cerebral palsy was found in 12% of EI survivors and 8% of ES survivors, blindness was found in 8% of EI and ES survivors, and deafness was found in 3% of EI and ES survivors. Overall, 22% of EI survivors and 24% of ES survivors were classified as having at least 1 major disability. Each 100 EI or ES livebirths yielded 7 children with major disabilities; this prevalence was correlated with survival across cohorts.

Conclusions: The prevalence of disabilities had not changed among EI or ES survivors with increasing survival. However, increasing survival of these infants has resulted in a steadily increasing prevalence of children with disabilities.