Mechanical ventilation in low-birth weight newborns treated in a provincial hospital

Abstract

Background: mechanical ventilation has been the technology with the highest impact on the improvement of the survival rate of low-birth weight newborns.Objective: to characterize the low-birth weight newborns ventilated at the neonatal intensive care unit of the “Dr. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna General” Teaching Hospital of Las Tunas from January 2016 to December 2017.Methods: a descriptive, cross-sectional, observational study was carried out to characterize the low-birth weight newborns ventilated at the aforementioned unit and during the period herein declared. The universe was made up of 646 liveborn infants with low birth weight and the sample included 160 newborns who needed ventilatory support during their hospitalization. To gather the information secondary sources were used such as the review of the medical records and the data obtained from the admission register of the neonatal intensive care unit. The results were analyzed according to descriptive statistics.Results: the rate of ventilation of low-birth weight newborns and the mortality were low. Hyaline membrane disease was the most frequent cause of intubation and mechanical ventilation with 51,3 % of the cases. Those who required ventilation were characterized by having more frequently a birth weight between 1500 and 2499 grams (68,8 %), of the male sex (58,7 %) and older than 32 weeks of gestation (41,3 %). The most frequent complication was septic shock (31,9 %).Conclusions: low-birth weight newborns who were treated with ventilation, included in the sample, were characterized. Low rates of mortality stand out.

Keywords

• perinatology
• infant, low birth weight
• respiration, artificial