The number of newborn infants who received postnatal antibiotic therapy can be reduced with a diagnostic algorithm that includes measurements of IL-8 and CRP. This diagnostic strategy seemed to be safe.

In selected infants, home-based detoxification is associated with reduced hospital stays and increased rates of breastfeeding, without prolonging therapy. Safety of the infants remains paramount, which precludes many from entering such a programme.

Cranial ultrasound examinations were performed on 533 infants of between 48 and 96 hours of age to establish the range of ventricular size in neonates of different gestational ages in whom there was no evidence of intraventricular hemorrhage or neural tube defects. It was found that ventricular size did not vary in infants with gestational age of 26 weeks or more. Only 15 (2.8 per cent) neonates had a ventricular width of greater than 3 mm. Of these 15 infants, 13 were re-examined within the first year of life and found to be neurologically and developmentally normal.

6 Lubin JH, Burns PE, Blot WJ, et al. Risk factors for breast cancer in women in northern Alberta, Canada, as related to age at diagnosis. J7NCI 1982;68: 211-7. 7 Janerich DT, Hoff MB. Evidence for a cross-over in breast cancer risk factors. confounding variables by logistic function regression the risk of dying for those transferred remained significantly higher than that for infants who remained (relative odds=4-6, 95% confidence interval 1-8 to 12-1).As the requirement for neonatal intensive care is episodic and unpredictable more flexibility has to be built into the perinatal health care system to enable preterm infants delivered in tertiary perinatal centres to be cared for where they are born.

As the mortality rate has fallen over time, respiratory causes of death have diminished, but septic causes of death have increased. Further advances in the use of exogenous surfactant and respiratory support may reduce respiratory deaths. Effective strategies to reduce nosocomial infections are urgently required.