Postnatal Steroid Administration

The Postnatal Steroid Administration Toolkit lays out best practices for decreasing chronic lung disease among VLBW infants. Rather than promoting adoption of a specific clinical practice, the Postnatal Steroid Administration Toolkit advocates for abandoning the use of postnatal steroids for treatment of chronic lung disease and hypotension in neonates. Postnatal steroids have been found to have significant effects on pulmonary and cardiovascular status, multiple acute side effects, and the potential for serious adverse effects on long-term outcomes.

The Postnatal Steroid Toolkit briefly reviews the literature on PNS use in infants and outlines how NICUs can use this literature and their NICU data for quality improvement in the treatment of chronic lung disease.