Monthly Archives: March 2014

Oxygen, transfusions, and NEC

Posted on 31 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

What causes NEC! The answer is ‘who knows?’, or perhaps a better one would be ‘its complicated…’ You probably need an immature gut, gut mucosal injury, inflammation and cytokine release, and an abnormal microbiome, all of which probably interact in … Continue reading →

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Meat the Munch Bunch

Posted on 30 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Being in a bilingual family has many great pleasures, but there are also extra opportunities for misunderstanding. Tonight, when reading a sequel to ‘Meet the Munch Bunch’ one of the kids asked me, ‘what does it mean (qu’est-ce que ça … Continue reading →

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Transfusion Associated Necrotizing EnteroColitis?

Posted on 29 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

I’m still not absolutely sure about TANEC, as it now seems to be called. It is certainly possible that transfusions could trigger gut injury in very preterm babies, but how to prove it? Even if the temporal association was absolutely … Continue reading →

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Septic Shock; 3 negative trials

Posted on 24 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Three trials back to back in the PNEJM (that’s the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine for any new readers) in adults with septic shock are disappointing: Early Goal Directed Therapy has become a dogma in recent years; it even … Continue reading →

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I think our spring is broken

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Spring officially started already (who decided that spring starts at the same time all over the northern hemisphere and lasts exactly 3 months? To me, spring starts when the snow is gone, the trees are budding and the birds start … Continue reading →

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Worms are beautiful

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

I found these amazing pictures of Marine Worms just stunning I won’t copy them here as I think the photographer deserves the clicks! https://www.behance.net/gallery/Worms-Renaissance/15109599 Well maybe just one…

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Pressure-Volume loops are not consistently interpreted

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

In case you remember my little Survey Monkey questionnaire on pressure volume loops, and were wondering about the responses, there were about 100 people who wasted a few minutes on the survey. Most were from medical professionals, (mostly neonatologists and … Continue reading →

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Publishing research results, can do better.

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Trial registration was supposed to reduce publication bias, and also improve the quality of publications. Ensuring that what investigators say they did, is what they actually did. Becker JE, Krumholz HM, Ben-Josef G, Ross JS. Reporting of results in ClinicalTrials.gov … Continue reading →

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Neonatal Updates : Therapeutic hypothermia

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Three recent articles dealing with the effects of therapeutic hypothermia: Drury PP, Gunn ER, Bennet L, Gunn AJ. Mechanisms of Hypothermic Neuroprotection. Clin Perinatol. 2014;41(1):161-75. the first is an excellent review article describing how hypothermia works, SPOILER ALERT, its mostly … Continue reading →

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Hypotension after PDA ligation

Posted on 19 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

A new prospective multi-center evaluation, of cardiac function and the causes of hypotension after PDA ligation, has just published data about adrenal function. Clyman RI, et al: Hypotension following patent ductus arteriosus ligation: The role of adrenal hormones. The Journal … Continue reading →

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