Neonatal Hospital Course and Outcomes of Live-born Infants with Trisomy 18 at Two Tertiary Care Centers in the United States.

Trisomy 18 is presumed to be a lethal chromosomal abnormality; medical management of infants with this aneuploidy is controversial. Our objective was to describe our approach and experience with trisomy 18 infants.  We reviewed the initial hospital course, management, and factors predicting discharge from the hospital from two large tertiary care neonatal intensive care units in the southern United States over 26 years.  Of the 29 infants with trisomy 18, 21 (72%) died in the hospital and 8 (28%) were discharged home. 19 (66%) infants received mechanical ventilation and 10 (34%) received inotropic medications. Eight infants had critical congenital heart defects; only one survived to discharge. Three infants underwent major surgeries; one cardiac surgery, one tracheoesophageal fistula repair, and one myelomeningocele repair. Median length of hospital stay was 14 days (range, 0-78) for all the infants and 31 days (range, 18-66) for those that were discharged home. Factors associated with discharge from the hospital were female sex, higher gestational age, and absence of critical congenital heart defects. Median survival time was 13 days and was significantly longer for females compared with males. Our 1-month and 1-year survival rates were 31% and 3.9% respectively.  A significant proportion of infants with trisomy 18 were discharged home. These data are helpful in counseling parents of infants with trisomy 18.