Background: Since 2008, follow-up examinations at 2 years of age with the standardized Bayley II test have become obligatory in Germany for all very low birth weight infants.
Aim: We already performed such examinations before 2006. Here, we compared our data and the completeness of our examinations before and after the introduction of the obligatory 2-year follow-up.
Patients: From 2004-2007, 372 infants <1500 g or <32 weeks were discharged alive from our center, 19 infants died during their initial hospital stay, 2 after discharge.
Results: 271 patients participated in the follow-up examination at age 2 years, with the proportion of participating infants increasing from 64% to 84% after the introduction of obligatory tests. 75% of infants showed a normal development, while 4% had a severe impairment (defined as being blind (1), deaf (1) or having cerebral palsy (6), the CP rate thus being 2%). 49% of infants completed the Bayley test; the mean MDI was 100.3 (SD 10.6). There were no significant qualtitative differences in test results with the introduction of the obligatory test.
Conclusions: The completeness of our follow-up increased over the years. In comparison with international data we found a low rate of severely impaired, deaf or blind VLBW infants.
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.