comparing the efficacy of high and low doses of vitamin a in prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Background: bronchopulmonary dysplasia (bpd) is one of the most common serious squeal of preterm infants. it involves approximately one quarter of infants with birth weight less than 1500 grams and 30% of less than 1000 grams. vitamin a has been shown to reduce bpd rate. we compared efficacy of low and high doses of vitamin a for prevention of bpd in very low birth weight preterm infants. materials and methods: in a randomized clinical trial, 120 preterm infants with gestation age 32 weeks or less and birth weight less than 1,500 grams were enrolled in the study. group a (n=60) received 1,500 iu vitamin a intramuscularly three times per week and group b (n=60) received 5,000 iu vitamin a intramuscularly 3 times/week. vitamin a was continued for 4 weeks in all patients. oxygen dependency at age 28 days after birth and at 36 weeks’ postmenstrual age was determined in all studied infants. results: the mean gestation age and birth weight in group a was 29.2 ± 2.1 weeks and 1095 ± 211 gr and in group b 28.7 ± 2.1week and 1147 ± 218 grams (p>0.05). moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia was detected in 6 (10%) neonates in group a and 13(21.6%) infants in group b, p= 0.09. mortality rate was 4 (6.6%) infants in group a and 3 (5%) patients in group b (p>0.05). conclusion: in our study, high and low doses of vitamin a were similar with respect to the bpd, intra-ventricular hemorrhage, and retinopathy of prematurity and total number of days for hospital stay in very low birth weight preterm infants.