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About 12% of all U.S. births are preterm (<37 completed weeks of pregnancy). Randomized trials have shown that administering 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17P) reduces the risk for recurrent spontaneous preterm birth; in the largest trial, 17P reduced the rate of preterm deliveries from 55% to 36% among women with previous spontaneous preterm deliveries (Journal Watch Jun 24 2003).
In the current study, investigators used data on the costs associated with preterm birth and on the effectiveness of 17P to estimate the savings that would be realized by treating all pregnant women who had previously given birth prematurely. Initial neonatal hospitalization costs might be reduced by up to US$3800 per woman treated, and lifetime treatment cost…