Effects of postnatal dexamethasone exposure on the developmental outcome of premature infants.

Extremely low birth weight premature infants are at risk for poor neurodevelopmental outcome. Postnatal dexamethasone has often been used in premature infants to prevent or treat bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and this drug is thought by some to affect neurodevelopmental outcome. We retrospectively examined the effect of this steroid on early neurodevelopment. Dexamethasone exposure was associated with an adverse outcome and was a stronger predictor of outcome than other accepted risk factors. If used, dexamethasone should be used in these high-risk infants for as short a period as possible.