NEONATAL RISKS OF A GROUP OF SGA INFANTS

A preceeding study demonstrated an important difference between Lubchenco's intrauterine growth curve, and a curve designed by us from normal chilean newborns. A significant increase in the number of SGA infants resulted from the use of our curve. The purpose of this study is to determine, if this additional group of SGA infants, has higher neonatal risks than the AGA infants. Both curves were applied to 9537 consecutive live births older than 35 weeks of gestation occurred in our Hospital between Jan.1/78 and Dec.31/82. Data obtained from the comparison of the two curves were as follows: Mortality, hospitalization and low Apgar score (<4) of the additional 842 (9%) SGA infants were determined and compared to those of AGA infants. Results (%, x2 test) in table below: From these results we conclude, that the additional group of SGA infants identified with our curve, has a significant higher risk of mortality and morbidity, stressing the clinical importance of using this curve to diagnose SGA newborns in Chile.