[Multiple benefits of antenatal corticotherapy. Current status in th Belgian French community].

The benefit of antenatal administration of corticosteroids (betamethasone or dexamethasone) in the newborn prematured babies before the 34 week of gestation has been well demonstrated: reduction of respiratory distress syndrome but also a decrease in the incidence of severe intraventricular hemorrhages, episodes of necrotising enterocolitis and neonatal mortality. In this article, we report the impact of this treatment in the Belgian French Community in the population of infants with a birth weight below 1,500 g, born between 1990 and 1994 in the seven neonatal intensive care units. Based on this epidemiological study (compared with international publications) we propose the routine use of corticosteroids during the antenatal period, with the aim of seeing an increase in the use of this treatment, which, although costing little, produces clinical benefit.

[Surveillance of the very-low birthweight infant: growth and nutrition].

In very low birth weight (VLBW) infants careful growth and nutritional supervision are necessary in order to reduce the incidence of persistent growth retardation after 2 to 3 years of age. Recently, post-discharge formulas with higher protein, energy and mineral content has been developed with the aim to promote catch up growth and mineral accretion during the first months of life. Based upon the most recent nutritional and growth data, the authors propose guidelines for the nutrition and growth follow-up of VLBW infants after discharge from the neonatal unit.

[Mortality and morbidity of low birth weight premature newborns in a French community from 1990 to 1994].

The development of new technologies in neonatal intensive care which appeared this last decade increased the viability of premature newborns and contributed to the increase in the number of admissions of very low birth weight (VLBW) newborns in the intensive neonatal care services (12.6% of admissions in 1987, 15.2% in 1996).