PS-047 Tradeoffs Between Mortality And Morbidity For Very Preterm Infants: Results From The Epice Cohort

Background and aims There is concern that declines in mortality after very preterm birth are accompanied by higher morbidity as more fragile babies survive. We investigated whether rates of severe neonatal morbidity were higher in regions with low versus high mortality. Methods The EPICE cohort included all births between 22+0 and 31+6 weeks of gestation in 19 European regions in 2011–2012 (N = 7878 live births). We divided the cohort into tertiles based on regional in-hospital mortality rates excluding deaths due to congenital anomalies: low ( Results 6770 infants were discharged home. 12.2% had at least one severe morbidity (regional range: 3.8% to 24.4%) and 15.3% had BPD (regional range: 6.7% to 34.9%). Rates of severe morbidity were 11.7%, 12.1% and 12.9% in low, medium and high mortality regions, respectively (p = 0.45). BPD was higher in low mortality regions (18.7%,16.7% and 10.2%, respectively (p Conclusion Rates of severe neonatal morbidity and BPD vary greatly between regions in Europe. BPD rates were higher in lower mortality regions, but this was not true for other morbidities.