Background and Aims Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is one of the most important diseases affecting prematüre babies. We aimed to identify the risk factors associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and compare the costs of disease.

Material and Methods A retrospective chart review was performed for the patients with a gestational age of less than 32 weeks and a birthweight of less than 1500 grams, who had been admitted to our unit between 2006 and 2008. Babies who had been referred to another hospital or who died before 28 days were not included in the study. Demographic features, prenatal and natal risk factors, complications and billing amounts were recorded and compared.

Results There were 652 patients in the specific time frame. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia developed in 150 of them, of which 86 (13.2%) were mild, 31 (4.8%) were moderate and 33 (5.1%) were severe. Prenatal hypoxia, resuscitation at birth, vaginal delivery, 5th minute Apgar score, lower gestational age, lower birthweight and male gender were significantly associated with the development of BPD. On the other hand, postnatal factors such as RDS, pulmonary hemorrhage, sepsis, TTN, hypotension, necrotising enteroclitis, intraventricular hemorrhage grade III-IV, anemia, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia were significantly associated with BPD. Hospital costs were significantly higher in patients with BPD.

Comment The development of BPD is affected by natal and postnatal factors rather than antenatal factors and birthweight. Prevention of BPD is also effective in reducing hospital costs.