Low mortality and short‐term morbidity in very preterm infants in Austria 2011–2016

AIM: The current study determined survival, short‐term neonatal morbidity and predictors for death or adverse outcome of very preterm infants in Austria. METHODS: This population‐based cohort study included 5197 very preterm infants (53.3% boys) born between 2011 and 2016 recruited from the Austrian Preterm Outcome Registry. Main outcome measures were gestational age‐related mortality and major short‐term morbidities. RESULTS: Overall, survival rate of all live‐born infants included was 91.6% and ranged from 47.1% and 73.4% among those born at 23 and 24 weeks of gestation to 84.9% and 88.2% among infants born at 25 and 26 weeks to more than 90.0% among those with a gestational age of 27 weeks or more. The overall prevalence of chronic lung disease, necrotising enterocolitis requiring surgery, intraventricular haemorrhage Grades 3–4, and retinopathy of prematurity Grades 3–5 was 10.0%, 2.1%, 5.5%, and 3.6%, respectively. Low gestational age, low birth weight, missing or incomplete course of antenatal steroids, male sex, and multiple births were significant risk predictors for death or adverse short‐term outcome. CONCLUSION: In this national cohort study, overall survival rates were high and short‐term morbidity rate was low.