On the spot when life begins too early

Foto: privat - Around seven percent of children in Austria are born prematurely, i.e. before the 37th week of pregnancy. The earlier a child is born, the more immature its organ functions are and the higher the risk that it will fall ill or suffer permanent impairment. Extremely immature babies (born before the 28th week of pregnancy) are often a matter of life and death and require optimum medical and pharmaceutical treatment around the clock. This demanding task is carried out at University Hospital Vienna by an interdisciplinary team of doctors, nurses and pharmacists who contribute their expertise. The neonatal intensive care units at University Hospital Vienna and MedUni Vienna treat children who were born so prematurely that some of them weigh less than 500 grams and are barely the size of an adult's hand. Just a few years ago, many of these patients would have had no chance of survival. Thanks to modern therapeutic approaches and interdisciplinary cooperation, the survival threshold for extremely premature babies has now been reduced to 22 to 23 weeks' gestation.