Özet:

Objective: To evaluate the clinical and demographic characteristics and the causes of admission of late preterm (LP) neonates admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).Material and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at our NICU, between January 2012 and December 2012. Neonates born at 340/7-366/7 weeks of gestation and admitted to the NICU were included in the study. Neonates were evaluated in terms of the reasons for hospitalization and the clinical and demographic characteristics and then compared with term ones.Results: During the study period there were 17690 births in our hospital; these included 13975 (79%) term births, 1981 (11.2%) LP births. The number of neonates admitted to the NICU was 2844. The NICU admission rates for LP infants and term infants were 21.5% (n=426) and 5.5% (n=765), respectively. The mean gestational age of the LP and term neonates was 35.1±0.8 and 38.5±1.2 weeks, and the mean birth weight was 2384±502 and 3185±593g, respectively. The most common reason for hospitalization was respiratory distress in both groups (55.2%, n=235 in the LP neonates, 52.3%, n=400 in the term neonates). The mean duration of hospitalization was 8.2 ± 5.5 days in LP infants and 6.9 ± 5.2 days in term infants. Compared with term infants, LP infants had signifi cantly higher rates of hypoglycemia (p=0.014), polycythemia (p=0.046), and feeding diffi culty (p=0.009). Conclusion: LP infants who have not completed the physiological and metabolic aspects of maturation than term infants are at risk for many complications such as hypoglycemia, polycythemia and feeding diffi culty. They should therefore be monitored more closely for development of complications

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