PRETERM BIRTH OUTCOMES: A BRIEF REVIEW

Key words: Preterm birth outcomes, Premature, Physical-neurological disabilities

In the last twenty years the survival of the premature babies has improved. The obstetricneonatal care has been effective in increasing survival among prematures, unfortunately they are not so effective to reduce the outcomes among the survivors (physical-neurological disability) in the long run. The serious disabilities (cerebral paralyses, blindness, deafness, etc.) are recorded approximately in the 10% of the cases, while the minor disability (light alterations of the tone and/or of the gait, behavioural and learning disorders, the language and the oculo-motoria coordination) have high incidence, between 23% and 60%. Therefore, it is important that the practices of the obstetric approach and neonatal intensive care are associated to a careful monitoring of outcomes in terms of mortality as well as of chronic pathologies in the survivors.