A study of the pulmonary complications of preterm infants after prenatal corticosteroids prophylaxis in a major Bulgarian hospital

Abstract

Abstract: An increasingly common problem in obstetrics and neonatology is premature birth. This problem is the cause of many health complications in premature neonates and is leading to neonatal mortality. These complications affect the whole body of premature babies, the respiratory system has the largest percentage due to lack of the period for intrauterine maturation of the lung. A retrospective study was carried out at the Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital St. Georgi, Plovdiv, Bulgaria for the period 2015-2016. 167 preterm infants have been studied. They were divided into two main groups: a working group of 89 preterm infants with prenatal corticosteroid prophylaxis and a control group of 78 preterm infants without prenatal prophylaxis. Data on clinical outcomes, health status, background complications of prenatal corticosteroid prophylaxis have been analyzed. The summary, however, of the results that is: the 3.6% difference has been found between newborn children with RDS and those with all other disabilities; this shows that in preterm infants the priority is to damage the respiratory system. Over 60% of the prematurity develop respiratory distress syndrome. The presence of respiratory complications is dew to the earlier gestational week of birth and the older age of the mother and is somewhat limited by the prenatal administration of corticosteroids.