Author Archives: Keith Barrington

About Keith Barrington

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

What outcomes matter to parents?

Following on from my 2 recent posts, a new publication from the CHILD-BRIGHT network in Canada, (Synnes A, et al. Redefining Neurodevelopmental Impairment: Perspectives of Very Preterm Birth Stakeholders. Children. 2023;10(5) Open Access). CHILD-BRIGHT being a slightly tortuous acronym derived … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Shifting the uncertainty a little further: severe early ultrasound abnormalities in the preterm. part 2

In this post, I continue to discuss some of the issues raised in our recent article: Chevallier M, Barrington KJ et al. Decision-making for extremely preterm infants with severe hemorrhages on head ultrasound: Science, values, and communication skills. Semin Fetal … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Shifting the uncertainty: early head ultrasound abnormalities, and counselling parents. Part 1

Routine early head ultrasound is the de facto standard of care in preterm infants. Recent statements from learned societies usually recommend head ultrasound at around 7 days of age, and many centres do them earlier than that. Older statements suggested … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

PAS 2023, some supplemental selected stuff

As usual, the annual meeting of PAS had too many things going on simultaneously to be able to get to all the interesting looking neonatal research. But here are a few things, that were of interest to me, and which … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

PAS 2023, some selected stuff

Hernia repair timing One trial which will should have an on the care of newborn infants is the trial of early versus late hernia repair. 40 neonatal centres in the USA randomized 320 preterm infants to inguinal hernia repair before … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

I might have already mentioned this; CRPs are CRaP!

Acute phase reactants increase for many different reasons, such as being born. Other causes of increased CRP include maternal antibiotic prophylaxis, TTN, HMD, Surfactant treatment, meconium aspiration syndrome, prolonged rupture of membranes, HIE, higher birthweight, gastroschisis, and probably someone scowling … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 4 Comments

An ESCape route for infants suffering opiate withdrawal

The Finnegan score was developed and evaluated in the 1970’s as the first systematic way of monitoring babies going through perinatal drug withdrawal. Although it was an advance at the time, it was not developed using modern standards, and was … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

PAS meeting starting tomorrow. Panel Saturday afternoon!

For those of my readers going to PAS in Washington DC, I have put together a panel to discuss painful procedures in neonatal research projects, which starts at 2pm on Saturday, April 29, 2023. The stellar cast of speakers include … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Leave a comment

What now for cerebral NIRS in the preterm?

Previous randomized trials of routine cerebral NIRS in preterm infants have shown that cerebral hypoxia can be reduced by responding to the signal, but in an underpowered follow up of a subgroup, there was no impact on long term outcomes. … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Survival after End-of-Life Discussions

Another of the articles that have been keeping me busy over the last couple of months has just been published. Boutillier B, Biran V, Janvier A, Barrington KJ. Survival and Long-term Outcomes of Children Who Survived After End-of-Life Decisions in … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | Leave a comment