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

Do blood transfusions treat apnoea of prematurity?

Posted on 3 November 2025 by Keith Barrington

There has for a long time been a thought that anemic babies with many apnoeas could benefit from a blood transfusion which would decrease their apnoeic spells. This idea has never been directly tested by an RCT. That is, a … Continue reading →

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Non-invasive high-frequency oscillation; worth the hassle?

Posted on 29 October 2025 by Keith Barrington

Non-invasive HFOV can be delivered by a variety of different equipment and interfaces. The high flows and upper airway turbulence probably have an impact on gas exchange; It appears that the effective dead space of the oro-nasopharynx is washed out … Continue reading →

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Avoiding IVs in moderately preterm babies

Posted on 28 October 2025 by Keith Barrington

A new very large (for neonatology) RCT has just been published. Ojha S, et al. Full exclusively enteral fluids from day 1 versus gradual feeding in preterm infants (FEED1): a open-label, parallel-group, multicentre, randomised, superiority trial. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. … Continue reading →

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Bob Bartlett RIP

Posted on 23 October 2025 by Keith Barrington

I just learned of the very recent death of Dr Robert Hawkes Bartlett, May 8, 1939 – October 20, 2025. He was a surgeon who had been developing extracorporeal oxygenation systems for cardiothoracic surgery who realised that extracorporeal circulation could … Continue reading →

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Neonatal Research Shorts : October 2025

Posted on 2 October 2025 by Keith Barrington

Afifi J, et al. Atropine Versus Placebo for Neonatal Nonemergent Intubation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. J Pediatr. 2025;286:114719 I had thought this was a settled issue, Neil Finer showed many years ago that atropine alone decreased bradycardias during intubation. But … Continue reading →

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Predicting neurological and developmental outcomes. Why? How?

Posted on 29 September 2025 by Keith Barrington

There are a huge number of publications correlating medium term outcomes (by which I mean outcomes around 1 to 2 years of age) with findings in the neonatal period. Most have concerned various approaches to brain imaging, although other studies … Continue reading →

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Caffeine is good for the preterm brain; might more caffeine be even better?

Posted on 24 September 2025 by Keith Barrington

One of the pivotal RCTs in neonatology was the CAP study (Schmidt B, et al. Long-term effects of caffeine therapy for apnea of prematurity. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(19):1893–902). We performed that study because there was no data on the … Continue reading →

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Unethical research practice, fraud and abuse of trust.

Posted on 2 June 2025 by Keith Barrington

One of the worst kinds of unethical research practice is to fail to publish results after a prospective study. Parents consent to research for altruistic motives, in the belief that their baby’s participation will help the care of other, future, … Continue reading →

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Caring for the most extremely immature infants

Posted on 29 May 2025 by Keith Barrington

There have been multiple publications concerning this issue recently, many from the tiny baby collaborative. The first 2 publications are about the overall approach to providing intensive care at extremely low GA: Bernardini LB, et al. It’s the little things. … Continue reading →

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Hypotension and Shock. Optimising treatments

Posted on 27 May 2025 by Keith Barrington

A new single centre RCT of permissive hypotension (PH) compared to “standard treatment” (ST) of very preterm infants 24 to <30 weeks GA, with a mean BP lower than their GA has just appeared (Alderliesten T, et al. Treatment of … Continue reading →

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