Causes of neonatal deaths in a pediatric hospital neonatal unit. An autopsy study of a ten-year period.

A study is presented of 1020 consecutive autopsies on newborn infants who died during the first 28 days of life at the Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki, during 1969-1978. The infants were grouped into four categories according to their weight at birth and into early (0-7 days) and late (8-28 days) neonatal groups according to their age at death. 77.5% of the cases fell into the early neonatal group. The most common causes of death were hyaline membrane disease (HMD) and cerebral haemorrhage (CH), which together accounted for 41.9% of all the deaths. Congenital anomaly was the second most common group of causes, comprising 35.3% of the cases. A gradual fall in the total number of deaths was conspicuous during the ten-year period. There was a statistically significant decrease in the number of deaths from HMD and CH in the weight categories 1001-1500 g and 1501-2500 g. The fall is considered to reflect improvement in both obstetrics and neonatal medicine.