[Changes in mortality of low birth weight infants after the introduction of newborn intensive care (author's transl)].

The Newborn Intensive Care Centre at the Landeskinderkrankenhaus Linz is the referral centre serving an area in which 20% of births in Austria occur. During a 4-year period ending 1976, after the facilities for intensive care had been introduced, the overall mortality of low birth weight infants (LBWI) was reduced by 44% (from 26% to 14%), whilst the mortality of LBWI born at the Landes-Frauenklinik Linz, which works in close collaboration with the Landeskinderkrankenhaus, went down by 60% (from 24% to 9%). The chances of survival decreased with increasing transportation distance and suboptimum standards of obstetrical care, in spite of intensive treatment after referral. It is suggested that the improved methods of perinatal care applied at the obstetrical and neonatal units are the cause of this remarkable improvement in survival rate of LBWI. These improvements in neonatal survival rate contributed considerably to the 40% decline in infant mortality in Upper Austria from 26.7% in 1973 to 16.2% in 1976..