SHORT REPORT

Neonatologists are using much less dexamethasone

E S Shinwell¹, M Karplus², D Bader³, S Dollberg⁴, I Gur⁵, Z Weintraub⁶, S Arnon⁷, E Gottfreid⁸, A Zaritsky⁹, I R Makhoul¹⁰, D Reich¹¹, L Sirota¹², I Berger¹³, A Kogan¹⁴, S Yurman¹⁵, M Goldberg¹⁶, D Kohelet¹⁷

¹ Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel
² Soroka Medical Center, Beersheva, Israel
³ Bnei Zion Hospital, Haifa, Israel
⁴ Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel
⁵ Bikur Holim Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel
⁶ Carmel Hospital, Haifa
⁷ Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba, Israel
⁸ Ziv Hospital, Tsfat, Israel
⁹ Barzilai Hospital, Ashkelon, Israel
¹⁰ Rambam Hospital, Haifa
¹¹ Ha’emek Hospital, Afula, Israel
¹² Schneider Children’s Hospital, Petach Tikva, Israel
¹³ Western Galilee Hospital, Nahariya, Israel
¹⁴ Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
¹⁵ Hillel Yaffe Hospital, Hadera, Israel
¹⁶ Assaf Harofe Hospital, Tsrifin, Israel
¹⁷ Wolfson Hospital, Holon, Israel

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Shinwell, Department of Neonatology, Kaplan Medical Center, PO Box 1, Rehovot, Israel;
eric_s{at}clalit.org.il

Two historical cohorts (1993–1994 and 2001) of preterm infants ventilated for respiratory distress syndrome were compared. Dexamethasone administration fell from 22% to 6%. Chronic lung disease in survivors rose slightly from 13% to 17%, and mortality fell from 21% to 15% (other causes). The effect of restriction of dexamethasone use on chronic lung disease and mortality remains to be seen.

Keywords: dexamethasone; corticosteroids; preterm; chronic lung disease

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