Letter To The Editor
1 Perinatal Trials Service, NPEU, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England OX2 6HE
Our 3-year follow-up study1 was initiated for precisely the reasons cited by Frank and Lecuona (ie, to go beyond the neonatal period to assess the longer term effects of dexamethasone). This is particularly so in the stratum in which there was little neonatal benefit (ie, those infants not ventilator-dependent at the time of dexamethasone/placebo administration). But it is not true to say that there were no beneficial effects of dexamethasone; in the stratum of infants who were ventilator-dependent at trial entry, dexamethasone significantly reduced the length of time they spent on the ventilator, as well as suggesting a tendency to reduce the time spent on supplemental oxygen and in hospital.




