Immediate and Late Respiratory Morbidity in Children after Elective Cesarean Section: Comparison of Early-term Cesarean Section (Week 37-38⁺⁶) and Full-term CS

Background: There is a global tendency for an increase in the percentage of elective CS surgeries, CS involves many risks to the neonate in addition to the impact on maternal morbidity and mortality, in the last years there are more and more reports on the impact of CS on neonatal morbidity, especially respiratory one, which is reflected in higher rates of respiratory morbidity, more hospital admissions and more prolonged hospital stay.[1, 2]

As known, there is an inverse relationship between birth week and neonatal complications and morbidity, in the other hand there are no enough studies to show if there is a significant difference between neonates born by elective CS between weeks 37-38⁺⁶ and those born between weeks 39-41⁺⁶.[3]

Methods: The study was performed in two parts, the first part, a retrospective cohort study, we collected data from pediatric cases born in French hospital of Nazareth whose ages at the time of the study were between 5-8 years, part two included Inviting part of those children and their parents to fill out questionnaires and perform a pulmonary function test(spirometry).

Results: In the first part of the study - a significant correlation is observed between the week of birth and the APGAR score value in the first minute; In the second part, a clear correlation is observed between birth weeks and respiratory function test values.

Conclusions: From our results we concluded that there is a definite correlation between birth week and respiratory morbidity - which was evident in better values ​​in APGAR score and the respiratory function test.