About the project
Improving the quality of life means prevention of major diseases regarding life continuance, classification of diseases with a high risk of mortality, targeting efforts for early diagnosis, prevention and treatment, stabilizing the already impaired health and providing good medical care and relief of the disease. This project, financed by Japanese Grant aims to improve the quality of life by improving the quality of medical services.
The Neonatology Clinic at the University Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology “Maichin Dom”, Faculty of Medicine, Sofia is one of the centers in the country which implements new advanced treatments of newborns at risk and provides training for specialists in the field of intensive neonatal medicine across the country.
Our main goal is the clinic to be recognized as a leader in the growing of newborns at risk across the country and a center for training specialists in the field of neonatology. This was achieved through modernization of equipment in the intensive care unit of the hospital, according to the European standards for neonatal intensive units (NIU) with the purchase of:
- Neonatal ventilator capable of high-frequency oscillatory ventilation mode – 2 pieces
- Bilirubin Meter - Measuring range - at least from 0 to 340 μmol / l and / or 0-20 mg / dl – 1 piece
- Mobile x-ray equipment (Kugel type) - 1 piece
- Neonatal thermal bed - a temperature range from 28 ° C to 39 ° C, with an accuracy of 0.5 ° C – 4 pieces
- Mobile photo lamp, LED cold light, 3 intensity levels – 3 pieces
- PulsOximeter - fixed station and mobile unit, providing continuous monitoring during transportation, acustic alsrms, LED display with digital values of the parameters – 1 piece
Babies with extreme immaturity require prolonged treatment and care under optimal conditions of oxygen concentration and temperature comfort. Modern and innovative equipment for this risk group of children would enable better control of respiratory parameters (oxygen concentrations, prevention of barotrauma) for the babies who need mechanical ventilation. This is a prerequisite for preventing the risk of late complications - retinopathy of premature born babies, cerebral palsy and chronic lung disease.
The availability of modern equipment allows improving the quality of medical care in all neonatal units in the country and leads to a significant improvement in neonatal activity and shortening baby’s hospitalization. This will take less money to treat risk newborns and society as a whole will pay less social cost in the future to prevent complications that can affect the quality of life of rescued risk newborns.
The priority areas of the grant of the Japanese government to support projects of social importance are as follows:
- Socio-economic infrastructure
- Social and health services, and activities aiming the improvement of living standards and human resource development of the Republic of Bulgaria
- Support for education and professional training.
This project is in the area of priorities envisaging health-related services - purchase and delivery of new equipment for the Neonatology Clinic at "Maichin Dom", Sofia. The modernization of medical equipment in the Clinic will result in improved quality of life for babies and their families and the new specialized equipment will give them a better start in life and contribute to the creation of new and healthy generation in Bulgaria.
The total number of births in Bulgaria in 2010 compared to 2009 has decreased. In 2010 76,105 births have been recorded, of which 75,513 (99.2%) were live births. The total fertility rate in 2010 was 10.0 percent, according to NIS data as in the previous 2009 and 2008 it was respectively 10.7% and 10.2%. Significantly increases the number and percentage of pregnant women at risk, and respectively - premature born babies requiring intensive care. Due to the hospitalization of significantly more mothers in the extreme lower limit of pregnancy considerably increases the number of severely premature born babies whose weight is less than 1000 grams and they need prolonged intensive care. There is high rate of premature born babies delivered in the hospital – 19 % which is even tending to increase (for comparison, the average percent for the country in 2008 is about 8.9 to 9%). In 2010, there is significant increase of multiple births. There is increase in births triplets. Their number is considerable compared to the previous years when they were two or three of all births.
The conclusions that can be drawn based on the following statistics are:
- High-risk births increase turns into a tendency, thereby increases the volume of work in a neonatal intensive care clinics.
- Reasons of extreme prematurity considerably increase (HMD / Hyaline membrane disease/, severe stages of IVH / intraventricular hemorrhage/ followed by brain damage, chronic lung disease) and are considered to be immediate cause of death in premature 4th. stage (11 children or 41% of total deaths.) This is mainly due to the shift of births at extremely low period of pregnancy and to new OG (obstetrics and gynecology) standard and the increase in multiple pregnancies and births.
The risk in the treatment and care of premature born babies with low and extremely low birth weight is that there could become complications associated with extreme immaturity - retinopathy with risk for permanent vision loss, chronic lung disease with permanent respiratory problems or cerebral palsy. All these complications have high social cost and can lead to permanent disability. Babies with extreme immaturity require prolonged treatment and care under optimal conditions of oxygen concentration and temperature comfort. Modern and innovative equipment for this risk group of children would enable better control of respiratory parameters (oxygen concentrations, prevention of barotrauma) for the babies who need mechanical ventilation. This is a prerequisite for preventing the risk of late complications - retinopathy of premature born babies, cerebral palsy and chronic lung disease.