Morbidity and mortality in term infants with intrauterine growth retardation

Abstract

One hundred term intrauterine growth-retarded and an identical number of normal grown term infants were followed up during the neonatal period to study their morbidity and mortality pattern. More than one-third of all growth-retarded infants (37 per cent) had clinical evidence of fetal distress and nearly one-quarter suffered from birth asphyxia (22 per cent). Hypoglycaemia was found to be the commonest (12 per cent) handicap in these children. Congenital anomalies occurred in 8 per cent of infants with IUGR. Meconium aspiration (4 per cent), hypothermia (4 per cent), and septicaemia (3 per cent) were limited to infants with IUGR. Three infants with IUGR died and the causes of death were meconium aspiration, multiple congenital malformations, and septicaemia in one case each. The mortality was limited to infants who weighed less than – 2SD below the expected mean for their gestational age. In the light of our observations and limited resources in developing countries, it is recommended that specialized nursery care should be provided to only severely growth-retarded infants (i.e. below -2 SD).