RITODRINE TOCOLYSIS AND NEONATAL INTRAVENTRICULAR-PERIVENTRICULAR HEMORRHAGE

Betamimetic drugs are commonly used for tocolytic therapy. To determin e their potential role in periventricular-intraventricular neonatal he morrhage (IVH), 103 preterm births with cranial ultrasonography result s were evaluated for the history of betamimetic therapy. The study gro up was divided into three subgroups according to the cause of the pret erm delivery: 44 patients were accepted as tocolysis failure (group A) ; 53 patients were too late for tocolysis (group B), and these latter cases were taken as controls for group A; for the remaining 6 patients , tocolysis was contraindicated due to fetomaternal reasons (group C), and these cases were not included in the analysis. In group A, 32 pat ients got ritodrine, 6 patients got combined therapy including ritodri ne plus magnesium sulfate or nifedipine. When cases in group A who got ritodrine only or combined therapy are compared with the no-treatment group, no significant difference in neonatal IVH incidences could be found (p > 0.005). Ritodrine does not appear to affect the incidence o f neonatal IVH.