Adverse Effects of Early Dexamethasone Treatment in Extremely-Low-Birth-Weight Infants

Chronic lung disease develops in approximately 30 percent of infants with a birth weight of less than 1 kg who survive the initial hospitalization. 1 Lung inflammation resulting from mechanical injury, a high oxygen concentration, or infection contributes to the development of this condition. 2 , 3 Low base-line serum cortisol concentrations and poor responses to physiologic doses of corticotropin have been associated with an increased risk of chronic lung disease among infants with very low weight at birth, 4 , 5 suggesting that the inflammatory response to lung injury may be exaggerated. Data from some, though not all, clinical trials suggest that the early . . .