Neonatal Mortality, Trends, and Risk Factors in a Tertiary Israeli Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A 13-Year Retrospective Analysis.

BACKGROUND: This study provides valuable insight on the importance of antenatal follow-up, despite advances in medical capabilities. OBJECTIVES: To provide current information on mortality rates and causes including demographic parameters. METHODS: A total of 3362 infants were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at Kaplan Medical Center between 2009 and 2021. Retrospective data were extracted from a computerized prospective database and further divided to two groups: 2009-2014 and 2015-2021. For sequential variables, we calculated the mean, standard deviation, and median. For categorical variables we calculated the prevalence and performed a chi-square test. The sequential variables did not show a normal distribution according to the Shapiro-Wilk test. Therefore, the A-parameter Mann-Whitney test was used. Results were considered significant when the P-value < 0.05. RESULTS: A decrease in the death rate was found, but when evaluating the infants who died, a decrease in full antenatal follow-up from 55.2% to 31.5% was seen (P-value = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS: Despite advancements in medical knowledge and capabilities, an association was found between increased mortality and reduced antenatal follow-up.