Hospital transfer of extremely preterm infants
BMJ 2019; 367 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5930 (Published 16 October 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;367:l5930Linked Research
Association of early postnatal transfer and birth outside a tertiary hospital with mortality and severe brain injury in extremely preterm infants
Linked Opinion
Using routinely recorded national data to improve care for the most preterm babies
- Colm P Travers, assistant professor of pediatrics,
- Waldemar A Carlo, Edwin M Dixon professor of pediatrics; director
- Division of Neonatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL 35249, USA
- Correspondence to: C P Travers cptravers{at}uabmc.edu
Current evidence suggests that extremely preterm infants born at non-tertiary level facilities might be at increased risk for adverse outcomes, including death and major morbidities.12 Infants born at non-tertiary facilities who are transferred postnatally could also have worse outcomes than infants who are born in tertiary facilities,34 although these data were potentially confounded by differences in baseline risks.56 However, most of the evidence to date comes from studies that are not population based or do not reflect modern care of extremely preterm infants.
In a linked paper, Helenius and colleagues (doi:10.1136/bmj.l5678) report analyses of contemporary population based data from England showing that postnatal transfer (transport) from a non-tertiary level neonatal intensive care unit in the first 48 hours after birth is associated with an increased risk of death or severe brain injury among extremely …
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