Missed opportunities for optimal antenatal corticosteroid timing in medically indicated preterm births

Abstract

Objective

Although delivery timing is physician dictated in indicated preterm births, suboptimal antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) administration occurs in most cases. We aimed to characterize the patterns of use of ACS in indicated preterm births and identify missed opportunities of optimal ACS administration.

Methods

We reviewed the records of women who received ACS and were delivered due to maternal or fetal indications at 24–34 weeks of gestation during 2015–2017 at a university hospital. Optimal ACS timing was defined as delivery ≥24 h ≤7 d from the previous ACS course.

Results

Overall, 188 pregnancies were included. The median gestational age at delivery was 32 weeks. Considering only the initial ACS course, the rate of optimal timing was 32.4%. Of 105 (55.8%) women eligible (delivery >7 d since the initial ACS course), only a third (n = 38) received a rescue ACS course. Among women who did not receive rescue ACS course despite their eligibility (n = 67), the decision-to-delivery was ≥3 h in 36 (53.7%), and ≥24 h in 20 (29.9%), representing 19.1 and 10.6% of the entire cohort, respectively. The urgency of the decision to deliver (i.e. in the upcoming 24 h and later) and allowing a trial of labor, were both positively associated with decision-to-delivery interval ≥3 h and ≥24 h. The rate of delivery within any optimal window (either initial or rescue course) was 40.4%, with gestational hypertensive disorders (OR [95% CI]: 2.40 (1.23, 4.72), p = .01) and decision to deliver made at first hospitalization (OR [95% CI]: 2.27 (1.04, 4.76), p = .04) as independent positive predictors of optimal ACS timing. The rate of composite adverse neonatal outcome was significantly lower in those with optimal ACS administration as compared to those with suboptimal timing (32.9 versus 50.9%, OR [95% CI]: 0.47 (0.26, 0.87), p = .02).

Conclusions

Suboptimal ACS administration occurred in most indicated preterm births. Underutilization of rescue ACS course and a substantial rate of missed opportunities for optimal ACS administration were identified as potentially modifiable contributors to improve ACS timing.

Keywords:

• Antenatal corticosteroids
• betamethasone
• medically-indicated preterm delivery
• steroid-to-delivery interval
• timing of antenatal corticosteroids

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ms. Cindy Cohen for her editorial assistance.

Ethical approval

The study was approved in January 2018 by the Human Investigation Review Board of Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center (IRB approval number: HMO − 0156–18). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the local institutional review board of Hadassah Medical Center Helsinki Committee (IRB approval number No. HMO 0156-18).

Author contributions

AR, GL, RHY, SY, DM, MR and UE reviewed the literature and wrote the paper. AR collected the data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.