Evaluation of Modified Extended Sick Neonate Score to Predict In-Hospital Mortality among Newborns Admitted to Resource-Poor Settings in Rural India: Authors’ Reply

Excerpt

To the Editor: We thank the authors for raising relevant queries on our article [1]. This study was done in NICU of Mamata Medical College and Hospital, Khammam, Telangana. The aim was to find an appropriate score useful in rural settings without requirement of extensive equipment or laboratory tests. Hence, we chose the title [2]. The article does not mention anywhere that this study is done at a rural setting. The study was conducted to devise a score based on two existing neonatal scores, Extended Sick Neonate Score (ESNS) and Modified Sick Neonatal Score (MSNS) which have good sensitivity and specificity at admission [3, 4]. Identifying severity of illness at admission helps in prioritising care for sick neonates in resource-poor settings and managing appropriate referrals to higher centres. Further studies are needed to evaluate this score for monitoring purpose later during the course of stay in NICU. …