Introduction: Respiratory distress constitutes one of the commonest cause of morbidity and mortality in the neonatal period.It is more commonly encountered within the first 48-72 hours of life.Aim: To find out the incidence, causes and outcome of respiratory distress in inborn newborn babies and also to determine the common organisms of pneumonia.Settings and Design: A hospital based prospective study was carried out for a period of 7 months (October 2015 to April 2016) in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) of AMCH (Assam Medical College and Hospital).
Materials and Methods: All inborn newborn babies admitted to NICU of AMCH who developed respiratory symptoms were included in the study.Maternal and baby details were filled up in a predesigned structured proforma.Statistical Analysis: Data were entered Breast Pump in SPSS (Software package for statistical analysis), version 16 and the frequencies were analyzed.Results: Of all the inborn deliveries during our study period, 5.
3% developed respiratory distress.It constituted 22.4% of all NICU admission, 61.5% were males and 38.
5% were females.TTNB was the most common cause (42.8%) of respiratory distress followed by pneumonia (29.6%), sepsis (8.
9%), MAS (8.2%) and RDS (5.9%).TTNB was more in term babies (54.
6%), RDS among preterm babies (94.4%) and MAS was found exclusively in the term babies.Of the 90 Pneumonia cases, sepsis screen was positive in 87.8% cases and blood culture was positive in 14.
4% cases.The most common organism was CONS (coagulase negative staphylococcus) which was found in shirt four cases (4.4%), followed by acinetobacter in three cases (3.33%) and klebsiella in two cases (2.
2%).In the pneumonia cases, predisposing factors like PROM was detected in 25.6%, maternal fever in 16.6% and foul smelling liquor in 11.
1%.The overall case fatality rate is 23%.Mortality is highest (77.8%) in RDS.
Conclusion: Respiratory distress is a common cause of NICU admission, TTNB being the commonest cause, followed by pneumonia.The burden of neonatal pneumonia is high in our NICU.