• Tokio Sugiura, Masanori Kouwaki, Yasuko Togawa, Mari Sugimoto, Takao Togawa, and Norihisa Koyama.
• Department of Pediatrics, Toyohashi Municipal Hospital, Aichi, Japan. tokio@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
• Neonatology. 2011 Jan 1;100(3):228-32.

BackgroundIncreased survival rates for extremely low birth weight infants have been reported. However, survival rates and prognoses of extremely preterm infants, such as infants born at 22 weeks of gestation, are still poor.ObjectiveTo investigate such infants' long-term outcomes, developmental assessments were performed.MethodsSeven infants with gestational age of 22 weeks were delivered in our hospital from 2005 to 2008. One infant was a stillbirth despite resuscitation in the delivery room. Six infants, 4 boys and 2 girls, with a gestational age of 22 weeks (range 22(3/7)-22(6/7) weeks), were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Birth weights ranged from 514 to 710 g. None of the infants suffered from sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, or severe intraventricular hemorrhage.ResultsThe survival rate was 85.7% (6/7) as a percentage of deliveries and 100% (6/6) as a percentage of NICU admissions. None of the infants suffered from deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, or epilepsy. Six infants were available for developmental assessments at 18 months' corrected age. Three infants showed normal developmental quotients, and 3 infants showed developmental delay.ConclusionIn our study, all infants admitted to the NICU at a gestational age of 22 weeks were discharged from the hospital alive. This might suggest that infants after 22 weeks' gestation be considered eligible for active treatment in Japan, though considering the size of the material, generalizibility of the results cannot be considered guaranteed.Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

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