Pattern of neonatal and postneonatal deaths over a decade (1995-2004) at a Military Hospital in Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVE: To describe and monitor the causes of neonatal and postneonatal deaths in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) over a 10-year-period.

METHODS: This is a descriptive study of all infants who died in the NICU from January 1995 until December 2004 at Riyadh Military Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected prospectively on all infants admitted to NICU. The cause of death for each infant was discussed and determined by at least 2 consultant neonatologists. Deaths were classified according to the modified Wigglesworth's classification of perinatal death.

RESULTS: During the study period, there were 79871 live births and 526 deaths, in which 446 84.2% were inborn deaths and 80 15.8% were outborn. Of the inborn deaths, 251 infants died between 1-6 days, 103 died between 7-27 days, and 92 died after 27 days. Lethal malformations led to death in 36%, prematurity and its complications in 42%, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy in 5%, while other specific diagnoses, combined, led to death in 17% of the cases.

CONCLUSION: Prematurity and its complications followed by congenital malformations were the leading causes of death.