Morbidity and Mortality in Preterm Newborns Under 32 Weeks in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the city of Bogota (Colombia)

Introduction: Adverse neonatal outcomes are associated with a great economic cost to health systems; this is directly related to the existing proportionality between the number of survivors and the disability rates in premature newborns; producing degrees of disability that vary from very mild to compromised quality of life. Objective: To describe the morbidity and mortality in newborns less than 32 weeks of gestational age and to determine the associated risk factors. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study with an analytical component, which included all preterm newborns less than 32 weeks of gestational age, who were born between January 2018 and December 2020 and who continued their outpatient follow-up in the Mother Kangaroo program of the same institution. Results: 108 newborns were identified. The main outcomes were bronchopulmonary dysplasia with a frequency of 85.9% among survivors and an overall mortality of 27.7%. The strong association between septic shock and death is highlighted (ORa = 275; p = 0.004); in the same sense, gestational age (ORa = 83.3; p = 0.004). Conclusions: The bronchopulmonary dysplasia is the most important morbidity in this group with an associated significant overall mortality. The probability of dying in these newborns is explained by a lower gestational age (<28 weeks), a lower hemoglobin level, a greater need for transfusions, and the presence of septic shock.