Monthly Archives: April 2014

Executive Function?

Posted on 29 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

Raju TNK, Mercer BM, Burchfield DJ, Joseph GF. Periviable birth: executive summary of a Joint Workshop by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American College … Continue reading →

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Necrotising Enterocolitis: is abdominal ultrasound helpful?

Posted on 29 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

I am still not convinced. (Maybe I could ask, and answer, the same thing about abdominal radiography!) In recent years in my practice we have had examples of echographic diagnosis of intramural gas in stable infants who had an abdominal … Continue reading →

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Better research, for better care

Posted on 28 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

I hope this commentary in JAMA receives a lot of ‘likes’! Eapen ZJ, Lauer MS, Temple RJ. The imperative of overcoming barriers to the conduct of large, simple trials. JAMA. 2014;311(14):1397-8. The commentary includes a report of a conference about … Continue reading →

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Retraction of a systematic review

Posted on 28 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

Exactly when should an article be retracted? That is not so easy a question to answer, fraud and significant data or image manipulation are one fairly obvious group of reasons. Making errors and/or poor research design are more tricky. When … Continue reading →

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Neonatal Updates

Posted on 27 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

Corvaglia L, Martini S, Battistini B, Rucci P, Aceti A, Faldella G. Bolus versus continuous feeding: effects on splanchnic and cerebral tissue oxygenation in healthy preterm infants. Pediatr Res. 2014. During a 6 hour period, preterm infants had either a … Continue reading →

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Pulse Oximetry Screening : It’s About Time

Posted on 27 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

It is about time! Timely diagnosis, and timely intervention for children with potentially lethal cardiac defects make an enormous individual difference to their survival and other outcomes. A new enormous study in the lancet from China (over 120,000 babies screened) … Continue reading →

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Treating pneumothoraces? Either a tube or leave them alone.

Posted on 21 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

I never understood why it was recommended to give 100% oxygen to treat a pneumothorax. I think the idea was that the gas in the pneumothorax could be replaced by oxygen which would then be reabsorbed more quickly if we … Continue reading →

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Something else that doesn’t work in sepsis; albumin

Posted on 21 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

Another multi-center RCT in adults with severe sepsis or septic shock with a negative result. This time 1800 adults in 100 ICUs in Italy were randomized. Fluid boluses were either crystalloid or 20% albumin and crystalloid. Blood pressure was somewhat … Continue reading →

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Bloody Placentas

Posted on 21 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

No, literally. There is now quite good evidence of the advantages of delayed cord clamping in the term infant, with most particularly an improvement in iron stores in the baby that has lasting effects during the first year of life. … Continue reading →

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Resuscitating preterm infants: how many O’s

Posted on 21 April 2014 by Keith Barrington

Very often in neonatology (and in life) we have to make a decision based on inadequate data. For example, when resuscitating a very preterm baby you have to decide where to set the starting FiO2, even if there are no … Continue reading →

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