OBJECTIVE - Epidemiological analysis of neonatal and perinatal mortality of 20,280 newborns alive with 500g or more and 374 stillbirths occurred at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre from 1984 to 1990. PURPOSE- To compare two periods: A (1984-1987) with B (1988-1990), estabilishing a relationship between the changes occurred in the causes and the rate of mortality. METHODS - The retrospective study was done with the records of promptuaries of obstetrical and neonatal centers, and review of flow-sheets of the deaths and autopsies. RESULTS - Between 1984 to 1990, 20,280 newborns alive with 500g or more, 374 stillbirths at perinatal unit of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre were born. 258 deaths occurred, the neonatal mortality rate was 12.7 per thousand. The stillbirth rate was 18.4 per thousand. The perinatal mortality rate was 28.4 per thousand. The incidence of low birth weight (<2,500g) was 11,2% and very low birth weight (<1,500 g) was 1.8%, the former group had an increase incidence between 1984-1988 (A) from 1.5% to 2.2% (B). The causes of deaths were distributed as follow: a) intrauterine infections (22.4%); b) hyaline membrane disease (20.1%); c) congenital malformation (18.2%); d) asphyxia (15.5%); e) postnatal infections (9.7%). The causes of stillbirth were: a) perinatal asphyxia (38.7%); b) intrauterine infections (9%); toxemia (8.2%); d) malformation (7.4%). The period B showed changes with an increase of postnatal infections odds ratio (OR) 7 (1.9-30.6) and congenital malformations OR 1.6 (0.8-3.2). It did not occurred a decrease in mortality rate for prematures below 1,500g OR 90 (61-118) in A to 54 (37-68) in B. CONCLUSIONS - The advances in technology and human capacity were not sufficient to reduce significantly the rate of neonatal mortality.
Newborn; Perinatal mortality
