Magnesium sulfate to pregnant women to prevent cerebral palsy in pre-term infants

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common chronic childhood handicapped with a lifetime of estimated cost of nearly U.S. $ 1 million per person. There is evidence that magnesium sulphate (MgSO4), the incidence of CP in very early preterm infants. Thousands of pregnant women and their fetuses are exposed MgSO4 each year in the United States for a large amount of data, and most obstetricians are comfortable with its use. But there is still some controversy on whether magnesium sulfate is truly protective against the CP. In three articles in the June 2009 edition of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the authors, a little light on the debate. Investigators Perinatology Research Branch (internal research department), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, Bethesda, and Detroit, and the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Wayne State University, Detroit, l ' an examination and systematic meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials with 4796 women and 5357 children. Write to the article, Dr. Roberto Romero, and Dr. Agustin Conde-Agudelo concluded that "prenatal magnesium sulphate are contemplated for use in women at high risk of distribution there are 34 weeks of pregnancy, including in patients with premature rupture of membranes, labor - in the active phase, and delivery within 24 hours. "They found convincing evidence that the administration of magnesium sulfate reduces the risk of cerebral palsy in children at risk.

Further discussion in an article, a round table discussion on the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, San Diego, CA 30 January 2009, two researchers from the Division for the mother-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Washington-St. Louis, and Division for the mother-Fetal Medicine, department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive medicine Sciences, University of California-San Francisco, the pros and cons of magnesium sulfate to prevent CP. In a lively, they are all talking about studies and observational studies and the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Participation in the roundtable, Alison G. Cahill, MD, MSCI, and Aaron B. Caughey, MD, PhD, noted, "Despite well-planned and executed studies, the answer to the question of whether the evidence based on the medical use of magnesium neuroprophylaxis for preterm delivery in pregnancies remains unclear. "

Dwight J. Rouse, MD, Center for Women's Reproductive Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, clinic offers its opinion on the use of MgSO4 to prevent cerebral palsy. He noted that "three large, randomized, placebo-controlled, studies of prenatal magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) for the protection of the fetus Neuro were recently completed and documented. The results of these studies, support for the use of MgSO4 to avoid the risk of cerebral palsy, the survivors of the first birth of premature birth. In the United States, the use of fetuses for Neuroprotection MgSO4 has the potential to prevent discrimination cases per year in 1000, cerebral palsy .