Special care baby unit neonatal disease outcomes in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria: 2-year retrospective cross-sectional analysis.

Background: Neonatal diseases contribute significantly to global under-five mortality. The highest neonatal mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa can be traced to Nigeria. This study aims to evaluate the outcomes of neonatal admissions in a select tertiary hospital in Nigeria.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of data collected on 656 neonates admitted in the special care baby unit of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria over a period of 2 years (January 2021 and December 2022). Descriptive analysis and inferential statistics were done at p<0.05 using SPSS V.25.

Results: Median age at presentation was 4 hours (IQR 0.5, 24) hours. The median duration of hospital stay was 6 days (IQR 3, 11). The most common morbidities were perinatal asphyxia (n=295/656; 45.0%) and preterm (n=175/656; 26.7%); while congenital anomalies (n=22/47; 46.8%), perinatal asphyxia (n=73/295; 24.7%) and preterm (n=37/175; 21.1%) had the highest case fatality rates. Gestational age at birth, duration of hospital stay, place of delivery and mode of delivery were the variables determined to be statistically associated with the outcome of care.

Conclusion: This study showed a mortality of 22.9% (n=150/656) in our study area with perinatal asphyxia (48.7%; n=73/150), preterm (24.7%; n=37/150), congenital anomalies (11.3%; n=22/150) and neonatal sepsis (6.7%; n=10/150) as the primary causes. This work highlights the need for emergency care of critically ill newborns through financing the transition from special care baby unit to neonatal intensive care unit across tertiary institutions in Nigeria.