Infants born at 22 to 24 weeks’ gestation at one academic medical center in 2001 to 2003 were found to be at an increased risk than infants who were born between 1993 and 1995 and benefited from less of life-sustaining interventions and still enjoyed a better survival rate.

The finding was reported in an issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

From Sciencedaily.com:

During the two study periods, 160 women delivered 179 infants, including 90 women who delivered 104 infants during the late epoch and 70 women who delivered 75 infants during the early epoch. Compared with the early time period, women in the later period were twice as likely to be transported to a higher level of care, 48 percent more likely to be monitored by sonogram, 60 percent more likely to receive antibiotics and 61 percent more likely to receive antenatal steroids.

In addition, infants admitted to the NICU between 2001 and 2003 were more frequently provided with life-sustaining interventions—including high-frequency ventilation, chest tubes and administration of dopamine and steroids—than were those admitted between 1993 and 1995.

However, the rate of death based on gestational age remained the same for infants born in both time periods. “Mortality has not changed in our hospital over the past 10 years despite escalation in care at each gestational age studied. What has changed is the length of time until death,” the authors write. “Applying all available medical technology to the perinatal care of extremely premature infants prolongs but does not prevent their death.”

Pamela K. Donohue, Sc.D., and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore compared prenatal management and outcome of infants born at 22 to 24 weeks’ gestation in two time periods: 1993 to 1995 (early epoch) and 2001 to 2003 (late epoch).