La Pediatria medica e chirurgica : Medical and surgical pediatrics
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Review Comparative Study
[Intensive care at extremely low gestational age: ethical issues and treatment choices].
With the continuing progress of obstetrical and neonatal care, the limit of human viability has continued to shift towards younger gestational ages. The survival rate as well as the survival without disability increases with each additional week of gestation but, for infants born from 22 to 25 w GA, it is still really low, and the threshold of human viability appears to be limited to the physiological development of the lungs, which take place around the 23rd-24th w GA. ⋯ What is the true infant's best interest is far to be understood and concern about the ethical basis of providing such intensive care is arising in the scientific community. In this paper the authors provide a review of the ethical basis of decisions related to the care of such infants: to treat, not to treat, intensive or compassionate care, withhold or withdraw treatment.