Importance Extremely preterm infants contribute disproportionately to neonatal morbidity and mortality. Objective To review 20-year trends in maternal/neonatal care, complications, and mortality among extremely preterm infants born at Neonatal Research Network centers. Design, Setting, Participants Prospective registry of 34,636 infants 22–28 weeks’ gestational age (GA) and 401–1500 gram birthweight born at 26 Network centers, 1993–2012. Exposure Extremely preterm birth. Main Outcomes Maternal/neonatal care, morbidities, and survival. Major morbidities, reported for infants who survived more than 12 hours, were: severe necrotizing enterocolitis, infection, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, severe intracranial hemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, and/or severe retinopathy of prematurity. Regression models assessed yearly changes, adjusting for study center, race/ethnicity, GA, birthweight for GA, and sex. Results Use of antenatal corticosteroids increased from 1993 to 2012 (348/1431 [24%] to 1674/1919 [87%], p<0.001), as did cesarean delivery (625/1431 [44%] to 1227/1921 [64%], p<0.001). Delivery room intubation decreased from 1144/1433 (80%) in 1993 to 1253/1922 (65%) in 2012 (p<0.001). After increasing in the 1990s, postnatal steroid use declined to 141/1757 (8%) in 2004 (p<0.001), with no significant change thereafter. Although most infants were ventilated, continuous positive airway pressure without ventilation increased from 120/1666 (7%) in 2002 to 190/1756 (11%) in 2012 (p<0.001). Despite no improvement from 1993 to 2004, rates of late-onset sepsis declined between 2005 and 2012 for infants of each GA (median GA 26 weeks, 109/296 [37%] to 85/320 [27%], adjusted relative risk [aRR]: 0.93 [95% CI, 0.92–0.94]). Rates of other morbidities declined, but bronchopulmonary dysplasia increased between 2009 and 2012 for infants 26–27 weeks (26 weeks, 130/258 [50%] to 164/297 [55%], p<0.001). Survival increased between 2009 and 2012 for infants 23 weeks (41/152 [27%] to 50/150 [33%], aRR: 1.09 [95% CI, 1.05–1.14]) and 24 weeks (156/248 [63%] to 174/269 [65%], aRR: 1.05 [95% CI, 1.03–1.07]), with smaller relative increases for infants 25 and 27 weeks and no change for infants 22, 26 and 28 weeks. Survival without major morbidity increased approximately 2% per year for infants 25–28 weeks with no change for infants 22–24 weeks. Conclusions and Relevance Among extremely preterm infants born at US academic centers over the last 20 years, changes in maternal and infant care practices and modest reductions in several morbidities were observed, although bronchopulmonary dysplasia increased. Survival increased most markedly for infants born at 23 and 24 weeks and survival without major morbidity increased for infants 25–28 weeks. These findings may be valuable in counselling families and developing novel interventions.

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The transition from intrauterine to extrauterine life that occurs at the time of birth requires timely anatomic and physiologic adjustments to achieve the conversion from placental gas exchange to pulmonary respiration. This transition is brought about by initiation of air breathing and cessation of the placental circulation. Air breathing initiates marked relaxation of pulmonary vascular resistance, with considerable increase in pulmonary blood flow and increased return of now-welloxygenated blood to the left atrium and left ventricle, as well as increased left ventricular output. Removal of the lowresistance placental circuit will increase systemic vascular resistance and blood pressure and reduce right-to-left shunting across the ductus arteriosus. The systemic organs must equally and quickly adjust to the dramatic increase in blood pressure and oxygen exposure. Similarly, intrauterine thermostability must be replaced by neonatal thermoregulation with its inherent increase in oxygen consumption.Approximately 85% of babies born at term will initiate spontaneous respirations within 10 to 30 seconds of birth, an additional 10% will respond during drying and stimulation, approximately 3% will initiate respirations after positive-pressure ventilation (PPV), 2% will be intubated to support respiratory function, and 0.1% will require chest compressions and/or epinephrine to achieve this transition. [1][2][3] Although the vast majority of newborn infants do not require intervention to make these transitional changes, the large number of births worldwide means that many infants require some assistance to achieve cardiorespiratory stability each year.Newly born infants who are breathing or crying and have good tone immediately after birth must be dried and kept warm so as to avoid hypothermia. These actions can be provided with the baby lying on the mother's chest and should not require separation of mother and baby. This does not preclude the need for clinical assessment of the baby. For the approximately 5% of newly born infants who do not initiate respiratory effort after stimulation by drying, and providing warmth to avoid hypothermia, 1 or more of the following actions should be undertaken: providing effective ventilation with a face mask or endotracheal intubation, and administration of chest compressions with or without intravenous medications or volume expansion for those with a persistent heart rate less than 60/min or asystole, despite strategies to achieve effective ventilation (Figure 1).The 2 vital signs that are used to identify the need for an intervention as well as to assess the response to interventions are heart rate and respirations. Progression down the algorithm should proceed only after successful completion of each step, the most critical being effective ventilation. A period of only approximately 60 seconds after birth is allotted to complete each of the first 2 steps, ie, determination of heart rate and institution of effective ventilation. Subsequent progression to the next step will depend o...