Trends in neonatal morbidity and mortality for very low birthweight infants: a 20-year single-center experience.

To describe trends in mortality and morbidity rates of very low birth weight infants as well as their pre-, peri- and postnatal characteristics over a period of 20 years' time. Retrospective study in all very low birth weight infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of the University Hospitals Ghent from 1 January 2000, to 31 December 2020. Mortality was the primary outcome variable with major morbidities being co-primary outcome variables. Pre-, peri- and postnatal characteristics are secondary outcome variables. We compared pre-, peri- and postnatal characteristics, as well as major morbidities between different groups with comparable rates of mortality. We included a total of 2037 very low birth weight infants and divided them in 3 epochs based on stepwise reductions in mortality in 2008 and 2013: 2000-2007 ( Analysis of the real-life experience showed that survival in very low birth weight infants significantly increased over time. Evolution of major morbidities will have to be carefully watched in the future.