A few new publications (I know it’s not quite weekly, but I am on vacation!):

Nguyen TP, Amon E, Al-Hosni M, Gavard JA, Gross G, Myles TD: “Early” versus “late” 23-week infant outcomes. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2012(0). Not too surprisingly, being born just after you reach 23 weeks gives you a lower chance of survival (25%) than being born just before 24 weeks (56%) in a single center retrospective cohort, n=126. Another good reason for throwing away guidelines that have intervention thresholds based on completed weeks of gestation!

Holsti L, Oberlander TF, Brant R: Does breastfeeding reduce acute procedural pain in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit? A randomized clinical trial. Pain 2011, 152(11):2575-2581. For preterm infants in the NICU breastfeeding was no better than a soother during heel-lance (RCT n=57), the babies were not fully established on breast feeds, and those that were better at suckling may have had an effect. The controls did not receive sucrose: is this ethical?

Beeram MR, Loughran C, Cipriani C, Govande V: Utilization of Umbilical Cord Blood for the Evaluation of Group B Streptococcal Sepsis Screening. Clinical Pediatrics 2012, 51(5):447-453. You can use cord blood for the initial CBC and for the blood culture without worrying about contamination, prospective comparative study, n=200.

Bellieni CV, Tei M, Coccina F, Buonocore G: Sensorial saturation for infants’ pain. Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine 2012, 25(S1):79-81. A systematic review of multi-modal sensory stimulation as a pain control technique. This approach has been championed by Carlo Bellieni, See here for example, this SR shows that it is effective, and more effective than sweet solutions by themselves. It consists of giving the sucrose, and then talking gently to the baby, and massaging them (often a gentle stroking of the face). I don’t think this is much done in North America, but is part of some European guidelines, and probably should be more widely used, it is very simple to add to giving sugar.