Ritodrine tocolysis and neonatal intraventricular-periventricular hemorrhage

Betamimetic drugs are commonly used for tocolytic therapy. To determine their potential role in periventricular-intraventricular neonatal hemorrhage (IVH), 103 preterm births with cranial ultrasonography results were evaluated for the history of betamimetic therapy. The study group was divided into three subgroups according to the cause of the preterm 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 patients got ritodrine, 6 patients got combined therapy including ritodrine 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 of neonatal IVH.