Premature Infants

According to the general use of the term, we designate as premature all infants who are born before the end of the normal term of pregnancy (forty weeks); but in common usage the term refers only to those infants whose gestation period was 260 days or less. There is another class of infants who may be considered in practically the same category as premature infants—the weaklings, infants born at term or nearly at term, who have suffered more or less severely during their intra-uterine existence through factors which interfered with their nutrition, and consequently interfered with their development. They are classed as congenitally diseased infants. For our purposes, we shall consider the conditions most frequently seen in premature infants which are of especial interest to the surgeon in three groups: ( 1 ) congenital malformations of the fetus due to intrauterine diseases and deformities, (2) pathologic conditions developing at or shortly after