Frequency of neonatal diseases in special care baby unit (SCBU) department of child health Khyber teaching hospital in Peshawar

Objectives: 1. to determine the relative frequency and gender variations of common illnesses amongst newborns in our set-up 2. to determine the outcomes in terms of neonatal mortality,for the common newborn illnesses. material and methods: this study was carried out in the neonatology unit of kth,peshawar. duration of the study was four months (i.e. 1st september to 31st december,2013). data for all the neonates included in the study was obtained through hospital records and and all the parameters were recorded through a pre-designed proforma. results: of the 1323 newborns admitted to the unit during the study period,there was a general male gender predominance with a total of 905 (68.4%) male babies compared to 418 (31.6%) female babies. majority of the babies admitted were of less than 24 hours of age (39.1%),followed by ages 1-3 days (28.9%) and 4-7 days (17.2%). there were far fewer admissions from the age bracket of 15-28 days (5.8%)with a mean age of 2.13(days). there were more term babies admitted to the unit at 68%,compared to 30.3% preterm newborns. the mean gestational age at admission was 36 weeks. frequency of indications for neonatal admissions were as follows: neonatal jaundice 377 (28.5%),prematurity 286 (21.6%),hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy 251 (19.66%),sepsis 221 (16.7%). other less common causes were meningitis 42 (3.2%),pneumonia 66 (5.0%),others 70 (6.6%). results show that prematurity had the highest mortality at (38 %) followed by birth asphyxia (24%),neonatal sepsis (17%) and neonatal jaundice (6.9 %). a majority of the admitted babies were delivered in khyber teaching hospital (40.5%) followed by private maternity homes(24.6%) and home deliveries(24.2%). a minority of admissions came from deliveries at other public sector hospitals (10.7%). conclusions: prematurity,birth asphyxia and neonatal sepsis were the major causes of neonatal mortality at the neonatal unit,while neonatal jaundice,prematurity and hie were the indications for majority of the admissions. © 2015,pakistan pediatric journal. all rights reserved.