Causes/patterns of admissions and deaths at a tertiary care hospital in suburban area of Lahore

Background: the pattern and outcome of neonatal diseases varies in urban and suburban areas of same population. understanding these patterns also helps determine the availability,utilization and effectiveness of mother and child health services in the community. aim: to determine and correlate the pattern and outcome of neonatal admissions and death in a tertiary care hospital in suburban area of lahore. methods: a prospective descriptive study was conducted in avicenna hospital neonatal unit targeting all neonates admitted during 1st jun 2014 to 31st may 2015. results: total 1268 patients were admitted during the study period. birth asphyxia (26.66%) was found to be the major cause of neonatal admissions followed by sepsis(19.01%),prematurity(17.82%),meconium aspiration (17.27%),neonatal jaundice (4.10%),infant of diabetic mother (2.84%) were other causes of admissions. birth asphyxia (28.2%),sepsis (23.1%),prematurity (12.8%),meconium aspiration (17.9%) and preterm hyaline membrane (15.4%) were the major causes of mortality seen. conclusion: prematurity,birth asphyxia,neonatal infections and meconium aspiration were the main causes of neonatal hospital admission and neonatal deaths in our study.