Magnesium sulfate's protection against cerebral palsy confirmed

Tag : magnesium

MedWire News : Prescribing magnesium sulfate to women at risk for pretermdelivery reduces their risk of having a child with cerebral palsy,research confirms.
Treatment with magnesium sulfate, which is commonly used to delaylabor, almost halved the likelihood the women's child would havemoderate or severe cerebral palsy, the team reports.
"Our study is the largest, most comprehensive effort to date thatlooked at using this inexpensive and commonly used treatment toreduce the occurrence of cerebral palsy after preterm birth," saidstudy author Deborah Hirtz (National Institute of NeurologicalDisorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland, USA).
For the study, a total of 2241 women at imminent risk for pretermdelivery were randomly assigned to receive 6 g magnesium sulphateintravenously over 20-30 minutes followed by a constant infusion of2 g per hour, or matching placebo.
Lead author Dwight Rouse (University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA)and colleagues found that 1.9 percent of the mothers givenmagnesium sulphate had a child who developed moderate or severecerebral palsy by 2 years of age, compared with 3.5 percent ofthose assigned to placebo.
Study author Catherine Spong (National Institute of Child Healthand Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland) claimed the findings area "major advance."
She said: "Our results show that obstetricians can use magnesiumsulphate, which they have experience prescribing, to reduce therisk of a devastating condition, cerebral palsy, in preterminfants."
"Cerebral palsy can't always be prevented, but the data from ourstudy and its predecessors will help obstetricians make informedtreatment decisions for the women under their care."
Journal abstract