Treating premature babies - steroids may do more harm than good

Even moderate doses of steroids are unsafe in premature babies. Administration of high doses of dexamethasone is used to reduce the risk of chronic lung disease in premature infants but can cause complications. Approximately 30% of babies who weigh less than 2 pounds at birth may develop serious lung disease. This happens as they need to be placed in ventilators to save their lives. While necessary to keep them alive, the ventilators can also cause inflammation and scarring of the small and underdeveloped lungs of the baby. Swelling of the lungs resulting from mechanical injury, a high oxygen concentration, or infection contribute to the development of this condition. To reduce this inflammation or the swelling and also to ward off lung damage, doctors often give the steroid drug dexamethasone. This drug has been proved to be effective but not necessarily safe, according to the new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The results of the study pointed that a large number of newborns treated with dexamethasone required emergency surgery to repair holes or tears developed in their intestines. There are more chances of complications in case of these babies than those who are not treated with this medicine. It was also seen that these babies did not grow as well. Thus treatment using moderate-to high doses of steroids in premature newborns in the first days of life may do more harm than good.