European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Neonatal hypothermia in very low birth weight (VLBW) is a common issue worldwide, especially preterm infants. Even when caregivers follow routine thermal care guidelines, keeping preterm infants sufficiently warm immediately after birth is challenging.Along with various short-term outcome like hypoglycemia, hypoxia, acidosis, long-term neuro-developmental outcomes of VLBW infants with admission hypothermia have very limited studied.Globally, the incidence of hypothermia upon admission in VLBW preterm infants is 31%–78%.In recent years, improvement in pregnancy care, upgraded obstetric techniques and better neonatal nursing in India have influenced the over-all incidence and prevalence of neuro-developmental outcomes among preterm VLBW infants with hypothermia.Odisha being a low-resourced state faces a high prevalence of hypothermia among VLBW infants. So, this study has been planned with the primary focus to prevent the hypothermia among preterm VLBW infants which in future will improve their short-term and long-term consequences. Total of 329 infants were included in this study from department of Paediatrics between April 2022 to March 2023.All infants with a birth weight < 1500g and GA less than 34weeks admitted to the NICU / SNCU with admission hypothermia were included during this study period .Infants having major congenital abnormalities and infants with missing or incomplete temperature data were excluded from this study. Routine investigations were done in all study participants as per protocol. In result, we observed the maternal variables and found that thyroid disorder were significantly more in mothers i.e. 62.31% (205) as compared to other factors. Mortality (40.93%) and RDS (87.13%) was high in moderate hypothermic VLBW infants as short term outcome whereas delay in mean developmental age (p=0.003) was observed in same group as long term outcome after one year of age. Early diagnosis and careful management will prevent the hypothermia among the preterm VLBW infants which in futures improves their short-term and long-term consequences.