Background and objective: Hypothermia is a common problem especially in preterm neonates and has been associated with increased neonatal mortality and morbidities. The objective of our study was to look into the distribution of admission temperature among VLBW neonates getting admitted to the NICU, association of admission temperatures to selected neonatal morbidities/mortality, and to evaluate for modifiable factors contributing to hypothermia.
Methods: Infants with birth weight between 500 and 1499 g and gestation ≥ 25 weeks without major congenital malformations delivered between October 2017 and March 2020 who were admitted directly from the delivery room to the NICU were included in the study. Data were collected prospectively on perinatal/birth characteristics to look for their association with admission hypothermia, and to look into the association of admission temperature with selected neonatal morbidities/mortality.
Results: There were a total of 538 neonates with the mean birth weight of 1206 ± 271 g included in the study. Mean admission temperature was 35.8 ± 1.3 °C. Low delivery room temperature was the most important contributor to admission hypothermia. Also, 3.3% of neonates were hyperthermic at admission to NICU, all of them having been delivered to mothers with intrapartum pyrexia. On adjusted analysis, we found that low admission temperature significantly increased therisk of adverse composite neonatal outcomes with admission temperature < 34.5 °C having 42% increased risk of the adverse outcome when compared to normothermic neonates.
Conclusion: Admission hypothermia remains a common problem in preterm neonates which is significantly associated with adverse neonatal outcome.
Keywords: Neonates; admission hypothermia; adverse outcomes; very low birth weight.