Very Low Birth Weight Baby: Review of Outcome and Personal Experience

Very low birth weight baby (VLBW) the limit for intact survival 15 years ago, has been replaced with extremely low birh weight babies (ELBW) as the neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) responds to these challenges. There are several risk factors associated with VLBW babies and the goal of management is to reduce mortality as well as the long term morbidity. The outcome varies depending on the level of care provided in the perinatal period. On comparative analysis we found that small babies in developing countries were more mature as compared to a similar birth weight baby in western countries. Hence, we see lower incidence of respiratory distress syndrome and associated complications. We can expect a reasonable outcome in babies >800 g birth weight and 28 weeks gestation and therefore all efforts should be made for providing adequate care to this group of VLBW neonates.