Abstract
Infants requiring oxygen therapy for over 60 days on our neonatal unit were reviewed in a retrospective study. A consultant opthalmologist (ES) had examined all these at 2-weeky intervals from the second week of life and identified 14 cases of retinopathy (ROP) greater than stage 3 between 1990 and 1993. The ROP cases were matched for gestation (±1 week), gender, ethnic group and birth weight (±50g) with other infants who also had oxygen requirements for more than 60 days and were on the unit during the same time-period. Comparison of these groups over the first two months of life demonstrated that the ROP group received significantly larger numbers and volume of transfused blood (p<0.04, p<0.05 respectively, Wilcoxon); this is not a new observation. However mothers of eight of the retinopathy group received β-sympathomimetics (7 ritodrine, 1 salbutamol) to arrest premature labour; only one of the non-retinopathy group had received this treatment (p<0.01). In the premature infant antenatal changes in retinal perfusion caused by β-sympathomimetics may be exacerbated by large swings in haematocrit and oxygen tensions resulting in an increased tendency to develop retinopathic changes. This observation casts further doubt as to the value of β-sympathomimetics in the treatment of premature labour.
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Miohie, C., Braithwaite, S., Schullenberg, E. et al. 160 β-SYMPATHOMIMETICS GIVEN ANTENATALLY MAY INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF RETINOPATHY IN THE PREMATURE. Pediatr Res 36, 29 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00160
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00160