Effect of antenatal prophylactic betamethasone injection on neonatal respiratory distress syndrome reduction in multifetal pregnancies

Abstract

Respiratory distress syndrome is the most important lung problem during the neonatal period. Although the benefits of antenatal corticosteroids in neonates with a gestational age of less than 34 weeks have been demonstrated, the benefit of this treatment in multifetal pregnancies is dubious. This study investigated the effect of Betamethasone on respiratory distress syndrome in multifetal pregnancies. Methods and materials: This randomized controlled trial study was done on 140 pregnant women under the age of 28 weeks of gestation who referred to Alzahra's educational center for prenatal care during the years 2016 to 2018. 140 pregnant women randomly divided into case and control groups were received intramuscularly Betamethasone (12 mg/kg/BW twice) and dose not receive any drug , respectively. Data including age of mother, sex, weight, respiratory distress syndrome and newborns admission in hospital were recorded for each subject. Data was analyzed by using two-tailed T, Mann-Whitney, chi-square and Fisher exact tests. Results: There were no difference among two groups about age of mother, sex and weight of newborns. There were 18 (12.82) and 34 (24.28%) newborns with respiratory distress syndrome in case and controls, respectively (P<0.01). Admission in hospital was 26 (18.57%) in Betamethasone group vs 50 (35.71%) in control group (P<0.01).