The late preterm IUGR and/or SGA

Excerpt

It is well known that in late preterm infants the mortality and the morbidity are higher than in term neonates. The rate of complications decreases with the progression of gestational age through the late preterm period [1]. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is one of the cause for late preterm delivery and it occurs more often in late preterm infants than terms ones. Itself constitutes a risk factor for morbidity and mortality [2, 3]. IUGR, as well as associated peri-natal morbidities, contributes to increase the risk, in these infants, of postnatal growth impairment, metabolic diseases and poor neuro-developmental outcome [1, 4]. Late preterm small for gestational age (SGA) infants were 44 times more likely to die in the first month and 22 times more likely to die in their first year than term adequate for gestational age (AGA) newborns. This increased risk cannot be fully explained by an increasing prevalence of lethal congenital conditions among SGA late preterm newborns [5]. …