The study involved nearly 5,000 babies born before 27 weeks gestation at 24 hospitals in a research group run by the National Institutes of Health between April 2006 and March 2011.  Advances in medicine have significantly improved outcomes for babies born between 22 and 25 weeks gestation – but not all hospitals provide the care that can save tiny babies, according to research published today. Active Treatment 
 
 Infants were considered to have received active treatment if they received any of the following interventions: surfactant therapy, tracheal intubation, ventilatory support (including continuous positive airway pressure, bag–valve–mask ventilation, or mechanical ventilation), parenteral nutrition, epinephrine, or chest compressions. Because impairment is a risk only for infants who survive, we used the following outcomes in our models: survival, survival without severe impairment, and survival without moderate or severe impairment. We calculated overall rates of active treatment (percentage of all infants who received active treatment) by gestational age at birth in both days and weeks. The between-hospital variation for a given outcome that could be attributed to the hospital rate of active treatment was calculated as 1−[(ICC of model including hospital rate of active treatment)÷(ICC of model not including hospital rate of active treatment)].25 To account for differences in patient characteristics among hospitals, models were adjusted for the covariates listed previously.
– A new survey of hospital practices may make it more common for doctors to actively treat a baby born at 22 weeks, at least a week younger than the generally accepted standard for viability, reports the New York Times. The study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that hospitals that chose to treat babies at that age, rather than providing "comfort care" until they die, had at least limited success: Babies at 22 weeks did not survive without active treatment, but they had a survival rate of 23% if they received it. Of the 18 survivors, six had serious issues such as cerebral palsy, blindness, or deafness as toddlers. One of the major takeaways of the study is that hospitals vary widely in their preemie practices, with no real standard on what the treatment cutoff should be, reports the AP. "It confirms that if you don't do anything, these babies will not make it, and if you do something, some of them will make it," the chief of neonatology at the University of Florida, who was not involved with the study, tells the Times. "Many who have survived have survived with severe handicaps." This is the first major assessment of preemie care, and while it shows that most 22-week-olds don't make it, the results could raise pressure on hospitals with a higher age for treatment cutoff to lower it. "The main message is that there's potential for more babies to survive without major or severe impairment at gestational ages that physicians once thought was impossible," a researcher from the University of Alabama at Birmingham tells AL.com.