Postnatal oral hydrocortisone in treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia: an observational study

The aim of our study was to determine whether hydrocortisone even at low dose could be an effective and safe alternative treatment for bronchopulmonary dysplasia.This prospective pilot study was conducted in a tertiary referral neonatal intensive care unit placed in Ankara Zekai Tahir Burak Maternity Teaching Hospital. Preterm babies (> 32 week gestational age or > 1500 g birth weight) who were ventilator dependent approximately at or beyond three weeks of age (defined as rescue treatment) or were oxygen dependent on postmenstrual 36th week without evidence of any infection (defined as bronchopulmonary dysplasia treatment) were enrolled in the study. Hydrocortisone was used orally in an initial dose of 1 mg/kg twice a daily for a week and then the dose was tapered by 10-20% every other day regarding to clinical response.A total of 90 infants were enrolled in this study. After hydrocortisone treatment only 3 (3.4%) patients were still on respiratory support. When safety of the drug was evaluated 8 (8.8%) infants had early complications of hydrocortisone treatment.To the best of our knowledge this study is the first trial in the literature along with the hydrocortisone dose and the initiation time in treatment of bronchopulmonary displasia.