Epidemiology of adverse cerebral outcome

Abstract

Since the beginnings of neonatal intensive care, in particular the recognition that mechanical ventilation could improve survival, there has been debate and discussion as to whether the steady advancement of survival rates comes at the cost of an increased risk of adverse outcomes. This was addressed in 1981 by Stewart, Reynolds and Lipscomb in a review of the world literature on outcomes for very low birth weight (VLBW) births [1]. Since the mid 1940s survival across a range of reports had steadily improved and despite increasing numbers of survivors the proportion of all births surviving with handicaps had remained constant at 6–8%. Indeed, the rate of impaired outcome as a proportion of survivors had progressively increased.