Active perinatal care of preterm infants in the German Neonatal Network

Objective To determine if survival rates of preterm infants receiving active perinatal care improve over time. Design The German Neonatal Network is a cohort study of preterm infants with birth weight P75), intermediate (P25-P75) and low (<P25) survival. We compared these survival rates with data in 2014-2016. Main outcome measures Death by any cause before discharge. Results Total survival increased from 85.8% in 2011-2013 to 87.4% in 2014-2016. This increase was due to reduced mortality of NICUs with low survival rates in 2011-2013. Survival increased in these centres from 53% to 64% in the 22-24 weeks strata and from 73% to 84% in the 25-26 weeks strata. Conclusions Our data support previous reports that active perinatal care of very immature infants improves outcomes at the border of viability and survival rates at higher gestational ages. The high total number of surviving infants below 24 weeks of gestation challenges national recommendations exclusively referring to gestational age as the single criterion for providing active care. However, more data are needed before recommendations for parental counselling should be reconsidered