Birth asphyxia and hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy: incidence and severity.

Clinically significant birth asphyxia was assessed over a 3-year period in a tertiary referral hospital in Nigeria. The overall incidence was 26.5/1000 live births of whom 12.1/1000 showed severely abnormal features comprising persistent seizures and coma. There was no appreciable difference in incidence for the consecutive years of the study. There was a marked involvement of infants who had suffered intrauterine growth retardation: 51 (30.7%) of these were asphyxiated, whereas only 3% were large for gestational age. The Apgar scoring system seemed not to have compared well with the clinical presentation of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy from birth asphyxia. Much needs to be done to improve health care delivery and reduce the incidence of birth asphyxia.