Brain Injury Surveillance Reports

Brain injury occurring during or soon after birth

The Department of Health and Social Care in England commissioned the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit to develop a working definition for brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth, and report annual rates for 2010-2019 for England using this definition, to monitor progress against the national maternity ambition. Outputs include regional rates of brain injuries by Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships/Local Maternity Systems and Neonatal Operational Delivery Networks.

Brain injury occurring during or soon after birth: 2021 data

•  2021 Brain Injury Tables Deprivation Ethnicity.(xls)
•  2021 Brain Injury Deprivation Ethnicity.(pdf)
•  2021 Brain Injuries Tables National Data.(slsx)
•  2021 Brain Injury National Data Final.(pdf) 

Brain injury occurring during or soon after birth: 2020 data

• 2020 Report on Brain Injuries Data.(pdf)
• 2020 Brain Injury Tables Deprivation Ethnicity.xls
• 2020 Brain Injuries Tables National Data.(xlsx)
• 2020 Brain Injury Deprivation Ethnicity.(pdf)

Brain injury occurring during or soon after birth: 2018-2019 data

• Brain injury report on 2018-2019 data
• Brain injuries table 2018-2019

We issue corrections to the reports:

• CORRECTION Defining brain injuries 2010 to 2015
• CORRECTION Brain injury occurring during or soon after birth 2016 and 2017
• CORRECTION Brain-Injuries-Tables_2016-17

We have identified an error in data extraction that resulted in

1. The inclusion of babies with Grade 1 HIE who did not receive therapeutic hypothermia
2. The exclusion of babies with central nervous system infection after 48 hours after birth.

A data transcription error resulted in:

1.  Incorrect numbers of exclusions

As a result, the following data presented in the original reports is reports are incorrect:

For 2016-2017:

1.  Annual counts and rates of infants in England with brain injury occurring during or soon after birth (all gestational ages): Table 1 and Figure 1
2. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with brain injury occurring during or soon after birth (term infants ≥37 weeks gestational age): Table 2 and Figure 2
3. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with brain injury occurring during or soon after birth (preterm infants <37 weeks gestational age): Table 3 and Figure 3
4. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with HIE: Table 4
5. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with central nervous system infection: Table 7
6. Annual counts and rates of infants (all gestational ages) in 2016 with a diagnosis of brain injury occurring during or soon after birth, without exclusions, by STP, attributed by LSOA of the mother’s residence in England at the time of delivery: Table 11
7. Annual counts and rates of infants (all gestational ages) in 2017 with a diagnosis of brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth, without exclusions, by STP, attributed by LSOA of the mother’s residence in England at the time of delivery: Table 12
8. Annual counts and rates of Infants in England (all gestational ages) in 2016 with a diagnosis of brain injury, without exclusions, attributed by neonatal ODN of place of birth; congruent with organisational structure of neonatal services prior to March 2018: Table 13
9. Results of sensitivity analysis reassigning births and brain injuries associated with St Richard’s Hospital to Thames Valley & Wessex neonatal ODN (from South East Coast ODN), adjusted rates of brain injuries per 1,000 live births: Table 14

For 2010-2015:

1. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with brain injury occurring during or soon after birth (all gestational ages): Table 1
2. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with brain injury occurring during or soon after birth (all gestational ages) before and after exclusions: Table 2
3. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with brain injury occurring during or soon after birth (term infants ≥37 weeks gestational age): Table 3
4. Annual counts and rates of infants in England with brain injury occurring during or soon after birth (preterm infants <37 weeks gestational age): Table 4

These errors have been corrected in the corrected versions of the report, dated 28^th January 2021. For reference the original reports remain available.

Dr Chris Gale, Dr Sabita Uthaya, Miss Sena Jawad, Professor Neena Modi

HIE: Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy

STP: Sustainability and Transformation Partnership

LSOA: Lower Super Output Area

ODN: Operational Delivery Network

For reference, uncorrected original reports can be found below:

• UNCORRECTED 2010-2015 Defining brain injuries - final report
• UNCORRECTED 2016-2017 Brain injury occurring during or soon after birth