Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is one of the most important chronic morbidities of very low birth weight infants and is associated with significant comorbidities and high risk of mortality both in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and long-term follow-up periods. In our country, there are few studies related with the characteristics of short- and long-term follow-up of infants with BPD. In this study, we aimed to define the demographic and clinical characteristics of infants with BPD in the last 10 years in our hospital, retrospectively. In the last 10 years, the incidence of BPD among very low birth weight infants was found to be 21.1% in our NICU. One hundred cases could be included in the study, and among them, 26 (26%) were mild BPD, 59 (59%) were moderate BPD and 15 (15%) were severe BPD according to the severity of the disease. The mean gestational age of the cases was 28.6±1.8 (25.4-34.8) weeks, while the mean birth weight was 1087±288 (600-2060) g. The number of male infants was higher than of females (61, 61%), and 85 (85%) cases were found to receive aggressive resuscitation at birth. On admission to NICU, 45% (n=45) of the cases were hypothermic and 76% (n=76) were hypotensive in the first 24 hours of life. During the NICU period, 69% (n=69) of the cases were found to develop respiratory distress syndrome, while 53% (n=53) developed pneumonia, 62% (n=62) patent ductus arteriosus, 33% (n=33) necrotizing enterocolitis, 67% (n=67) neonatal sepsis, 44% (n=44) intraventricular hemorrhage, and 34% (n=34) retinopathy of prematurity. Ten cases (10%) died during the NICU period. Home oxygen therapy was initiated in 69 (76.7%) of the discharged cases. Hypoxia, hypercarbia and hypocarbia in arterial blood gas analysis in the first three days of life were found to be the most important risk factors for the development of severe BPD. Fifty cases could be evaluated at corrected age of 12-24 months during the long-term follow-up. Of these, 11 (22%) had growth failure, 8 (16%) had cerebral palsy, 12 (24%) had severe retinopathy of prematurity, and 9 (18%) had hearing impairment. Rehospitalization rate was 47.8% (n=43) among discharged patients. The majority of the rehospitalized patients (18, 23.4%) had pneumonia, acute bronchiolitis (12, 15.6%) and sepsis (8, 10.4%). In conclusion, the short- and long-term management of BPD is complicated and requires a multidisciplinary approach. In our country, multicenter studies are needed to obtain comprehensive data about short- and long-term follow-up of infants with BPD.

Keywords: bronkopulmoner displazi, prematürenin kronik akciğer hastalığı, prematüre bebek, çok düşük doğum ağırlıklı bebek, prognoz.