Neonatology is a subspecialty of pediatrics defined as the care of the ill or premature newborn infant. It is a boarded, hospital-based branch of medicine. Most neonatal medicine is practiced in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The principal patients of neonatologists are newborn infants who are ill or requiring special medical care due to prematurity, low birth weight (intrauterine growth retardation, congenital malformations (birth defects)), sepsis, or birth asphyxia.

Although there were some efforts to care for sick infants in the early 1900s, there was a rapid escalation in the services in the 1960s with the advent of mechanical ventilation of the newborn. This allowed for survival of smaller and smaller newborns. In 2006 newborns as small as 450 grams and as early as 22 weeks gestation have a small chance of survival. Infants weighing 1000 grams and at 27 weeks gestation have an approximate 90-95% chance of survival and the vast majority have normal neurological development.

A neonatologist is a physician practicing neonatology. To become a neonatologist, the physiciain initially receives training as a pediatrician, then completes an additional training called a fellowship (for 3 years in US) in neonatology. Most, but not all neonatologists are board certified in the specialty of Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics, and in the sub-specialty of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine also by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Pediatrics

Neonatologie | Neonatologie | Neonatologi | Neonatologi | Neonatologia | Neonatologia