1 The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York 29, N.Y.
IN THIS issue of Pediatrics, Amer and his colleagues report the results of an attempt to estimate the value of gammaglobulin in prevention of infectious diseases among premature infants during the first year of life. This study is of great interest because it is considered by most authorities that infectious diseases are responsible in part for the increased mortality among premature infants during the first year of life. Any procedure which would reduce the incidence of infectious diseases might be expected to result in an increased survival rateprovided the procedure did not involve a comparable risk, and provided that pain, discomfort, and inconvenience did not preclude its use. It is noteworthy that the authors state that studies published previously have failed to show the value of gamma-globulin, but they believe that this result may be due to the fact that relatively small and few doses of gamma-globulin were used in these investigations.