Indications for admissions and mortality of babies at the special care baby unit of Teaching Hospital, Batticaloa

Abstract

A neonate is a child under 28 days of age. The child is at highest risk of dying during these first 28 days of life because they have to adapt to new environment that is completely different from their mother's uterus. So identifying Common indications for admission and causes of death from our study will help to improve the specific care with needed intervention to reduce the neonatal mortality further and improves the quality of neonatal care in the Special care baby units (SCBUs). The purpose of this study is to describe the indications for admissions and mortality of babies at the special care baby unit of Teaching Hospital, Batticaloa. A descriptive retrospective study was carried out to describe the indications for admissions and mortality of babies admitted to the special care baby unit during January 2023 to December 2023 at Teaching Hospital Batticaloa. A complete enumeration method was used to recruit population. After getting the permission data were collected through admission book and death book. Statistical package of social sciences 25, was use to analyze the data. A total of 1356 admissions of babies were included in the study. The chief causes of admission in SCBU were suspected sepsis 34.6%, prematurity (12.6%), neonatal jaundice (NNJ) (11.5%), respiratory distress syndrome (RD) (9.8%), birth related complications (7.2%), congenital deformities (6.9%) and feeding purposes (4.5%). In our study 1265 babies were discharged, 80 died and 11 were referred to other institutions for specialized treatment. The most common causes of death were pulmonary hemorrhage (14.1%), birth related complications (13.2%), congenital deformities (12.7%), prematurity (12.3%), low birth weight (LBW) (11.8%), sepsis (10.9%) and surfactant deficient lung disease (SDLD) (4.5%). In this study, suspected sepsis followed by preterm, NNJ, RD and birth related complications were the leading causes of admission. Most of the admission occurred at the age of day one of the babies. And the most leading causes of death were pulmonary hemorrhage followed by birth related complications, congenital deformities, prematurity, LBW, sepsis and SDLD. Enhancement of the antenatal, delivery services, perinatal care and improvement of neonatal care facilities will reduce the preventable deaths in SCBUs. Providing health education to the mothers will also further improve the neonatal health and reduce admissions.