Malformations in infants of very low birth weight.

: The incidence of lethal, serious and trivial malformations was determined in a consecutive series of 675 infants who weightd 1500 g or less (very low birth weight infants). All patients were born in one maternity hospital. Most of the 169 survivors were followed until at least five years of age. Of these children, 15 had a trivial malformation that either disappeared spontaneously or was corrected surgically. A further five children have a significant or serious residual defect. There were 506 perinatal and infant deaths and 51 of the babies who died had malformations confirmed at necropsy. In 30 of these, death was inevitable. There were 10 seriously malformed infants for whom survival was possible, but in six cases, the diagnosis was obvious at birth. The patients were treated between 1966 and 1970 when techniques of intensive care were evolving. Consequently, some of the infants who died would have survived with the treatment now available. Amongst the perinatal deaths in this report, only 2.0% had a serious malformation compatible with survival.