Author Archives: Keith Barrington

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About Keith Barrington

I am a neonatologist and clinical researcher at Sainte Justine University Health Center in Montréal

Give your opinion: what should we call the most immature babies?

There is an upcoming workshop, sponsored by the AAP, and other groups, that is investigating what shared language should be used for the babies of less than 25 weeks gestation. At present there are not as many responses as they … Continue reading

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Automated oxygen control; is it worth it?

The history of automated controls of inspired oxygen goes back many decades, to before the invention of pulse oximetry. The first studies I remember used transcutaneous PO2 as the target variable, which had major limitations, as well as the advantage … Continue reading

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Prophylactic acetaminophen in the preterm

In a newly published trial (Roze JC, et al. Prophylactic Treatment of Patent Ductus Arteriosus With Acetaminophen: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2026) nearly 800 infants of 23 to <29 weeks GA were randomized within 12 hours of birth. … Continue reading

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Not just neonatology, trip to Rwanda

I was very fortunate to be able to take a trip to Rwanda to participate in their neonatal training scheme, in what was termed a “respiratory bootcamp”. Rwanda is a small country of 23000 km2, with a young population of … Continue reading

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How much oxygen for the resuscitation of the preterm?

I like a good acronym, so my initial response to the new TORPIDO trial was very positive! TORPIDO 30/60 was a large multicentre RCT comparing initial FiO2 concentrations for resuscitation of the preterm infant (Oei JL, et al. Targeted Oxygen … Continue reading

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Universal Neonatal Genome sequencing?

It is over 2 years since I posted about this issue, in the meantime there have been a number of new initiatives, and several review articles and opinion pieces. Including a JAMA, “research of the year” article”. I was triggered … Continue reading

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Why doesn’t closing the PDA help preterm infants?

I have been continuing to think about this issue, so will subject you all to some of my thoughts. The large RCTs of medication for closure of the PDA show no benefit, and some evidence of harms, but we all … Continue reading

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Should we ever close the PDA?

The latest large multicentre RCT has just been published. Laughon MM, et al. Expectant Management vs Medication for Patent Ductus Arteriosus in Preterm Infants. JAMA. 2025. In this trial, infants of 22 to 28 weeks GA were randomized at between … Continue reading

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Is this article trustworthy?

There are many ways that an article in the medical literature may not be worthy of trust, and whose results may be unreliable. I remember one of my own trials, LACUNA, which was a pilot RCT of lactoferrin supplementation to … Continue reading

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Hope for HIE

I was struck this morning by a new article in Pediatric Research a “Family Perspectives” written by the founder of the organisation that has the same name as the title of this post, “Hope for HIE“, Betsy Pilon (Pilon B. … Continue reading

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