"Current guidelines, first published in 1995, recommend the use of antenatal corticosteroids to mothers at risk of preterm delivery between 24 and 34 weeks of gestation, but not before 24 weeks due to lack of data. However, many babies born before this date need intensive care, 'the authors of the article.
The team Waldemar A. Carlo, MD, University of Alabama (USA), has conducted a study to determine whether prenatal exposure to corticosteroids in very preterm infants is associated with improved outcomes including death or developmental disability child neurological 18 to 22 months.
The study included data of newborns with a birth weight between 401 grams and 1,000 grams born between 22 and 25 weeks of gestation. Of these children, 7808 (74.1%) were children of mothers who received antenatal corticosteroids. Of the 5691 children born between 1993 and 2008 who survived until 18 to 22 months, in 4924 (86.5%) assessed the neurological development.
Less frequent
The researchers found that the presence of death or neurodevelopmental impairment was less common in infants who had been exposed to antenatal corticosteroids and were born between 23 weeks gestation (83.4% vs. 90.5%, with no exposure ), at 24 weeks gestation (68.4% vs. 80.3%) and 25 weeks of gestation (52.7% with exposure to antenatal corticosteroids versus 67.9% no exposure), but not those born at 22 weeks of gestation (90.2% vs. 93.1%).
If mothers had received antenatal corticosteroids, the following events have been significantly lower in infants born at 23, 24 and 25 weeks of gestation: death from 18 to 22 months in hospital death, overall death, intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia (a type of brain injury) and death or necrotizing enterocolitis (a condition in which tissue is destroyed part of the intestines). For infants born at 22 weeks of gestation, the only result that was significantly less than was death or necrotizing enterocolitis.
However, the authors caution that " despite the fact that survival was doubled with the administration of antenatal steroids in the entire cohort, it remained relatively low (36%). "
