Prophylactic Indomethacin for Patent Ductus Arteriosus

To the Editor: In a recent article by Mahony et al. (March 4 issue),* very early treatment with indomethacin was shown to prevent the development of a hemodynamically important shunt through the ductus arteriosus among newborn infants weighing less than 1000 g at birth. One of the important benefits to the indomethacin-treated infants but not to those receiving a placebo was a statistically significant shorter time needed to regain birth weight. Three of the 12 infants who received placebo had necrotizing enterocolitis, but none of the 10 infants given indomethacin had this problem. Although this difference was not found to.