Ankura Hospitals posted more than 95% success in the survival of premature babies

19th November 2022, Hyderabad:  Ankura Hospital, a super specialty Hospital chain dedicated to Women and Children in the state of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, with 12 centres spread across Hyderabad, Khammam, Tirupati and Vijayawada has documented a success rate of more than 95% in treating premature babies which is an impressive achievement. 

The hospital staff, including Neonatologists, Pediatricians and Nursing staff, who work day in and day out for providing the best healthcare to treat premature babies, celebrated Premature day on 17th November this year along with the parents of premature babies who were treated and discharged successfully from the hospital. 

World Prematurity Day is observed on 17th of November each year to raise awareness about preterm birth and the concerns of preterm babies and their families worldwide. Preterm birth (premature birth) is a significant public health problem across the world because of associated neonatal (first 28 days of life) mortality and short- and long-term morbidity and disability in later life. Preterm is defined by World Health Organization (WHO) as babies born alive before 37 completed weeks of gestation or fewer than 259 days of gestation (gestation starts on the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period). 

Sharing the details Dr. Nasreen Banu, Dr Viraraghavan VR, Neonatologists, Ankura hospital for Women and Children, KPHB, Hyderabad said “We are elated to share that we recorded more than 95% success in treating premature health conditions in our specialized women and child healthcare centers across Telugu states. At Ankura Hospital we have world class technology and a dedicated team of Neonatologists who have saved more than 30,000 babies overall and more than 15,000 premature babies in the past five years. We take pride in being a team that has been able to treat some rare and difficult clinical situations in these premature babies successfully.” 
Premature babies born at 23-25 weeks’ gestation (normal pregnancy lasts for about 40 weeks) are a major challenge to even the best of the healthcare settings across the globe. The ‘intact survival’, which means surviving without any major complications related to the brain and other organs in the body is of utmost importance in newborn care. The intact survival rate in the group of neonates born at 23-25 weeks’ is around 50-60% even in developed nations. In the past one year we have successfully discharged 10 babies (60%) born at 23-25 weeks’ who all had intact survival. We emphasize that a major contribution for this success story belongs to the Obstetricians and the parents of these premature babies. We are striving hard to continue to achieve ‘intact survival’ in this group of preDrmature babies. The care before birth plays an important part in the survival of these preterm babies. 

Dr Vandana Hegde from Hegde hospitals said “Healthy lifestyle, family planning, nutrition, identification of risk factors in women before and during pregnancies, and women empowerment / education can decrease the preterm birth rate in our country which presently is approximately 10-12%. Appropriate antenatal care such as the use of medicines like dexamethasone is of vital importance for the survival of preterm babies in case of threatened preterm labour. The presence of an experienced Neonatal team at the time of birth and the care given in the first hour termed as ‘Golden Hour Management’ also plays an important part in the survival of preterm babies”.

In addition, we are glad to share the success story of the smallest baby to be operated in our hospital for a major heart condition called as ‘coarctation of aorta’. This surgery was done on a 28 weeker baby who was 790 grams at birth, in our hospital by an experienced Cardiac team from Star hospital (Dr Nitin Rao, Senior Pediatric Cardiologist, Dr. B.R. Jagannath, Dr.Sai Ram, Cardiothoracic surgeons). 

The Pediatric Cardiologist, Dr Nitin Rao from the Star Hospital said “It is a major challenge to do open heart surgery in premature babies., especially a high risk surgery like that for  Coractation of Aorta, as structures are very fragile. Apart from the expertise of our team and the excellent post-operative care given by the Neonatology team from Ankura Hospital, the determination of the parents was a major factor for this success story. The baby is growing well and is healthy.”