Fetal neuroprotective role of magnesium sulphate

Abstract

Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) is used for very long time in Oobstetrics as anticonvulsivant, antihypertensive and tocolytic and in pediatrics as anticonvulsivant, anti-anaphylactic and antispasmodic. In recent years we have found that the use of antenatal MgSO4 to women with imminence of premature birth may have fetal neuroprotective role. Babies born too early have a higher risk of dying in the first weeks of life than babies born at term, and those who survive often have damage in the form of cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness or physical disabilities. Neonatal morbidity and mortality rates attributed to prematurity, increase proportionally with the lower the gestational age is at the moment of birth. In the mid 1990s, observational studies suggests that premature infants born by mothers who received MgSO4 as tocolytic or for other obstetrical indications had a lower rate of cerebral palsy compared to children born prematurely by women who haven’t been exposed to therapy with MgSO4. The objective of this review is to analyze the results of randomized, controlled studies which investigates the neuroprotective effect of MgSO4 against to specific neurological disease of prematurity.