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| |  New Treatment For Premature Labour LONDON -- July 25, 1997 -- An important advance in the prevention of premature delivery is reported by Dr. Robert Sawdy, London, U.K., and colleagues in a Research Letter in this week’s issue of The Lancet. A woman, whose nine previous pregnancies had resulted in miscarriage or death soon after very premature birth, was given nimesulide, an anti-inflammatory drug, in her tenth pregnancy. The drug was started at 16 weeks’ gestation. She also had an operation to strengthen the neck of the womb (abdominal cerclage). Nimesulide was stopped at 34 weeks’ gestation, when the major risks to the fetus of early birth had passed. Labour began six days later and, after a caesarean section, her baby was born weighing 3.1 kg, with mild breathing difficulties, which resolved, and with no congenital abnormalities. Although, as the authors point out, "The successful outcome of this pregnancy may have been due to the abdominal cerclage, nimesulide, or both", the onset of labour shortly after nimesulide was stopped suggests that the drug was contributing to maintaining the pregnancy. Nimesulide inhibits one form of cyclo-oxygenase, an enzyme that may be important in the initiation of labour.
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