Neurodevelopmental status of low birth weight infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia requiring prolonged oxygen supplementation

Fifty infants weighing 1,500 g or less at birth with a diagnosis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) were followed to a mean age of 25 months to determine their clinical course and short-term neurodevelopmental outcome after discharge from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and to identify possible predictive factors for outcome. Because study participation was voluntary, the subjects may not have represented the total population of BPD survivors. Occurrences of abnormalities were high: 11 hearing impaired, 10 legally blind, 14 cerebral palsy, and 23 abnormal development scores. Twenty-one subjects had feeding problems and weight was below the fifth percentile in 26. Home-oxygen therapy was required by 50 per cent of the subjects. Although severity of illness, duration of oxygen therapy and feeding problems were greater among those sent home on oxygen, their neurodevelopmental status did not differ from that of infants breathing room air by discharge. Factors associated with neurodevelopmental outcome were intracranial hemorrhage, pulmonary air leak, and length of hospital stay.