OBJECTIVE: To assess the incidence of short-term outcomes of low birth weig ht infants (≤1,750 g) exposed prenattally to either dexamethasone or betamethaso ne. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed a cohort comprising 550 infants who wer e born alive at our center during the period January 1999 through December 2001, who weighed 1,750 g or less at birth, and who were exposed to prenatal steroid treatment. We compared brain ultrasound findings, such as intraventricular hemor rhage and cystic periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), as well as other clinical f indings, including respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), necrotizing enterocoliti s, retinopathy of prematurity, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia, for all premature infants whose mothers received either dexamethasone (from January 1, 1999 to Ju ne 30, 2000, n = 263) or beta-methasone (July 1, 2000 to December 31, 2001, n = 287). RESULTS: Patient characteristics (mothers and infants) were the same in b oth groups, with the exception of the number of steroid courses administered, th e number of women with premature rupture of membranes (defined as >24 hours), an d the number of women who had received tocolysis. No significant difference was found between the 2 groups with respect to intraventricular hemorrhage and cysti c PVL frequencies. No significant differences were found in the incidence of sho rt-term outcomes examined, despite the fact that the dexamethasone group was ex posed to a statistically significantly greater number of courses than the betame thasone group. CONCLUSION: There seem to be no advantages to maternal antenatal treatment with betamethasone compared with dexamethasone in reducing the risk of PVL in low birth weight (≤1,750 g) infants. Both drugs have the same effect on all short-term outcome parameters checked.
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