Administración prenatal de corticoides y retinopatía del prematuro

introduction. retinopathy of prematurity (rop) is the main cause of blindness in argentina. some studies suggest that antenatal steroids may decrease the incidence of rop, but their effects are in dispute. our aim was to assess the effects of antenatal steroids on the incidence of rop in neonates less than 1.250 g. population, material and methods. analytic cohort study. all neonates < 1.250 g born at the hospital italiano de buenos aires between april 1996 and december 2005 were eligible for the study. data were collected prospectively in an electronic data base. the population was divided into two groups; infants whose mothers received antenatal steroids (study group) and infants whose mothers did no receive them (controls). the presence of rop and stages ≥3 were assessed by ophthalmologists who were unaware if the mother had received steroids. results. 181 preterm infants < 1.250 g were born within the study period, 36 (19.5%) died before eye examination and in 4 (2%) data were missing. thus 141 infants were included, 94 (66.6%) in the study group and 47 (33.3%) as controls. no difference was found in the incidence of rop and stages ≥3; 30% vs. 32% and 15% vs. 13% in the study group and controls, respectively. steroids reduced intraventricular hemorrhage (ivh); or= 0.39; ci 95%: 0.17-0.92]. prolonged rupture of membranes was more frequent in the study group (or= 3.74; ci 95%: 1.34-10.45). no difference was observed in other variables. conclusion. in our population, antenatal steroids did not reduce the incidence and severity of rop but did reduced the risk for ivh.