Fatal Circulatory Collapse in Premature Infants Receiving Chloramphenicol

Abstract

A SURVEY was made of premature infants born twenty-four hours or longer after spontaneous rupture of the fetal membranes, because of a higher mortality in this group than in the premature infants whose membranes had ruptured at birth. Routinely, these infants had been placed on antibiotics shortly after birth because of assumed exposure to infection. The role of antibiotics in this higher mortality was questioned. A comparative study of these infants on different treatment schedules was conducted from March, 1958, to February, 1959. This paper is a report of that study.MethodAll premature infants delivered in the birth suites . . .