[Pre- or neonatal corticotherapy: what are the long-term consequences?]

Abstract

This paper is a literature overview on the potential long-term side effects of steroid therapy in the prenatal and neonatal period. Incomplete and transient suppression of adrenal function without growth impairment has been reported in prolonged treatment with steroids for bronchopulmonary dysplasia. There seems to be no secondary chronic immune dysfunction. There is evidence for deleterious effects on lung and brain development in experimental animals. In human preterm neonates, no pulmonary and cerebral secondary effects were observed after short prenatal steroid courses, but it is as yet uncertain whether this applies also to prolonged steroid therapy which requires further long-term investigations, including school performance.