Postnatal corticosteroid use for prevention or treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in England and Wales 2012–2019: a retrospective population cohort study

OBJECTIVE: Describe the population of babies who do and do not receive postnatal corticosteroids for prevention or treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using data held in the National Neonatal Research Database. SETTING: National Health Service neonatal units in England and Wales. PATIENTS: Babies born less than 32 weeks gestation and admitted to neonatal units from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2019. MAIN OUTCOMES: Proportion of babies given postnatal corticosteroid; type of corticosteroid; age at initiation and duration, trends over time. SECONDARY OUTCOMES: Survival to discharge, treatment for retinopathy of prematurity, BPD, brain injury, severe necrotising enterocolitis, gastrointestinal perforation. RESULTS: 8% (4713/62019) of babies born <32 weeks and 26% (3525/13527) born <27 weeks received postnatal corticosteroids for BPD. Dexamethasone was predominantly used 5.3% (3309/62019), followed by late hydrocortisone 1.5%, inhaled budesonide 1.5%. prednisolone 0.8%, early hydrocortisone 0.3% and methylprednisolone 0.05%. Dexamethasone use increased over time (2012: 4.5 vs 2019: 5.8%, p=0.04). Median postnatal age of initiation of corticosteroid course was around 3 weeks for late hydrocortisone, 4 weeks for dexamethasone, 6 weeks for inhaled budesonide, 12 weeks for prednisolone and 16 weeks for methylprednisolone. Babies who received postnatal corticosteroids were born more prematurely, had a higher incidence of comorbidities and a longer length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: In England and Wales, around 1 in 12 babies born less than 32 weeks and 1 in 4 born less than 27 weeks receive postnatal corticosteroids to prevent or treat BPD. Given the lack of convincing evidence of efficacy, challenges of recruiting to and length of time taken to conduct randomised controlled trial, our data highlight the need to monitor long-term outcomes in children who received neonatal postnatal corticosteroids.