A full course of prenatal steroids was linked to improved survival in extremely preterm newborns, according to the findings of a cohort research that was published in JAMA Network Open.

The study included 431 newborns in all, who were divided into three groups. At 22 weeks′ gestational age (GA) or earlier, 241 newborns (55.9%) received entire prenatal steroids, 110 infants (25.5%) received no antenatal steroids, 80 infants (18.6%) received partial antenatal steroids, and 110 infants (25.5%) received no antenatal steroids. At GA 21 weeks, 17 newborns were exposed to prenatal steroids.

Compared to 37.5% of infants subjected to partial prenatal steroid exposure and 35.5% of infants not exposed to antenatal steroids, 53.9% of infants exposed to complete antenatal steroids lived to discharge. Also, it was seen that infants born after complete antenatal steroid exposure had a higher chance of making it to discharge and surviving without significant morbidity compared to those born without prenatal steroid exposure.

Thus it was observed that extremely preterm infants who received full treatment were 1.95 times more likely to survive and 2.74 times more likely to live without any significant morbidities than infants who did not receive full prenatal steroid exposure.

(Source: https://www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/pregnancy/100943)