Objective: A descriptive study of an infant of a diabetic mother was carried out in order to analyze if macrosomia (weight greater than P90 for gestational age) is a good criteria in order to predict associated complications.
Patients and methods: A total of 382 diabetic mothers were attended between January 1994 and December 1996.
Results: Most of the complications were similar to those reported in the literature. In infants of diabetic mothers there is a significant increase in malformations (7.1%), sepsis (10.7%), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (12.1%), respiratory distress (12.7%), hypoglycemia (50%), polyglobulia (30.4%) and jaundice (7.1%). We did not find any differences for traumatisms (8.25%), acute fetal suffering (19.6%) or hypocalcemia (1.8%). Respiratory distress was related to gestational age.
Conclusions: The high weight for gestational age is a good parameter to predict complications in the infants of diabetic mothers.