Monthly Archives: May 2016

Do Moderately Preterm Infants need RSV Immunization? What use are numbers without a denominator?

Posted on 30 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Palivizumab is an enormously expensive medication, an antibody which is given intramuscularly about once per month to at-risk infants to prevent infection with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Recently the AAP and the CPS have changed their recommendations to reduce … Continue reading →

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Making Good Decisions: part 3. Living with the aftermath

Posted on 30 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

When there are decisions made about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining interventions for a baby. There are 2 possible long term outcomes, either the baby will be there a few weeks hence, or not. What do we know about how parents … Continue reading →

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Culture negative sepsis: what is it?

Posted on 27 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

One of the things that I have wondered about over the years is whether infants who appear to be infected, but who have negative cultures, might have viral infections. A new study suggests that this is not rare. Kidszun A, et … Continue reading →

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New Publication

Posted on 26 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Just arrived on-line: a systematic review and meta-analysis (I can imagine Annie’s eyes glazing over right now as she reads those words) of neonatal resuscitation programs. Pammi M, et al. Newborn Resuscitation Training Programmes Reduce Early Neonatal Mortality. Neonatology. 2016;110(3):210-24. Available free … Continue reading →

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I want a Guarantee.

Posted on 26 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Enomoto M, et al. Effect of Volume Guarantee in Preterm Infants on High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation: A Pilot Study. American journal of perinatology. 2016(EFirst). One of the things that really bugs me (and there are many, as my gentle readers will … Continue reading →

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Making Good Decisions; part 2

Posted on 24 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Green J, et al. Quality versus quantity: The complexities of quality of life determinations for neonatal nurses. Nurs Ethics. 2016. This study used a mixture of quantitative (survey of over 400 nurses) and qualitative (interviews with 24 nurses) methods. The … Continue reading →

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Making Good Decisions; part 1

Posted on 24 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

White DB, et al. Prevalence of and Factors Related to Discordance About Prognosis Between Physicians and Surrogate Decision Makers of Critically Ill Patients. JAMA. 2016;315(19):2086. This is a really cool study among families who had a family member in the … Continue reading →

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Neonatal Updates

Posted on 23 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Härkin P, et al. Paracetamol Accelerates Closure of the Ductus Arteriosus after Premature Birth: A Randomized Trial. The Journal of pediatrics. 2016. Despite all the interest in paracetamol (acetaminophen in N America) for ductal closure, most of the published data so far … Continue reading →

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Why didn’t erythropoietin improve the outcome of preterm babies?

Posted on 18 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Because that is the result of a newly published RCT of erythropoietin (EPO) for neuroprotection of small preterm babies, no effect. Natalucci G, et al. Effect of Early Prophylactic High-Dose Recombinant Human Erythropoietin in Very Preterm Infants on Neurodevelopmental Outcome … Continue reading →

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The microbiome of plastic tubes in children

Posted on 16 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Petersen SM, et al. Nasogastric feeding tubes from a neonatal department yield high concentrations of potentially pathogenic bacteria – even one day after insertion. Pediatr Res. 2016.  These authors cultured 94 nasogastric feeding tubes from 34 preterm infants. 1 ml … Continue reading →

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