Providing and Forgoing Resuscitative Therapy for Babies of Very Low Birth Weight

Abstract

We compared practices at three different NICUs and tried to determine\nwhether physicians' practices regarding the use or withholding of\nresuscitative therapy were consistent from one hosptial to another. \nResuscitation practices differed among the three hospitals we studied. There\nwere differences in the number of babies who received resuscitative therapy,\nin the components of therapy, and in decisions to withhold resuscitative\nefforts. In spite of these differences, certain factors emerged as consistent\npredictors of poor outcome after resuscitative therapy. Babies who had low\nfive-minute Apgar scores and babies who required