Perinatal factors influencing outcome of very-low-birth weight infants.

Of 106 liveborn infants weighing 751 to 1,500 g born to 97 mothers, 97 (91.5%) were transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for premature infants at the Beilinson Medical Center, Petah Tikva. Treatment with tocolytic agents (ritodrine) and corticosteroids (betamethasone) was introduced when indicated but no preventive antibiotics were used during the antenatal period. All infants received immediate care by a neonatologist and 77 infants (72.6%) survived. Although the cesarean section deliveries increased during the survey from 21.7% during the first period to 43.3% during the second, there was no statistically significant difference in the survival rate. Thus it seems that there is no advantage in performing cesarean sections for very-low-birth weight infants in either vertex or breech presentations.