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

Platelet transfusions don’t close the PDA, but they may increase IVH

Posted on 13 April 2019 by Keith Barrington

I would never have actually thought to ask the question whether platelet transfusion might close the PDA, although early thrombocytopenia is associated with persistent PDA, and platelet plugs seem to be part of the mechanism of closure. A group in … Continue reading →

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

Sail Away, Sail Away…

Posted on 8 April 2019 by Keith Barrington

You could probably guess that a post about the SAIL trial (Kirpalani H, et al. Effect of Sustained Inflations vs Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation on Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia or Death Among Extremely Preterm Infants: The SAIL Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2019;321(12):1165-75.) … Continue reading →

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To p or not to p, what is the alternative?

Posted on 3 April 2019 by Keith Barrington

I started writing the previous post several weeks ago, and, of course, the ideas are not original with me, in fact, a whole recent issue of “The American Statistician” is dedicated to not just trying to eliminate talk of statistical … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 2 Comments

To p or not to p, that is the question.

Posted on 1 April 2019 by Keith Barrington

I can’t claim preference for this title, although I wish I could. I copied it from an article published in an ENT journal (Buchinsky FJ, Chadha NK. To P or Not to P: Backing Bayesian Statistics. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. … Continue reading →

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Partnering with parents

Posted on 31 March 2019 by Keith Barrington

For a few years now Annie Janvier in our unit has been developing programs of partnership with families. Using contacts with mostly “veteran parents”, and occasionally veteran patients, we have developed partnerships in research, patient care, and education. The “PAF” … Continue reading →

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How should we evaluate heart rate during neonatal resuscitation?

Posted on 28 February 2019 by Keith Barrington

Many babies receive some sort of “resuscitation” during their transition from intra-uterine to extra-uterine life. How do we decide when a baby needs intervention? A baby who is active and breathing is usually left alone, a baby who is neither … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Death or oxygen, which is worse?

Posted on 27 February 2019 by Keith Barrington

We have a big problem in neonatal research. We have constructed composite outcomes that have become the “standard of design”, but are not of much use for anyone. Because we are, rightly, concerned that death and other diagnoses may be … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Clinical evaluation vs Technology

Posted on 26 February 2019 by Keith Barrington

Two recent trials in adult ICU patients ask very interesting questions, questions which are only linked by testing something clinically simple versus a more technologically demanding evaluation. The first was comparing the use of serum lactate concentrations versus capillary filling … Continue reading →

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Fortification of breast milk, Why? When? With What?

Posted on 23 February 2019 by Keith Barrington

The above title is the title of a talk I just gave at the NEO2019 conference. I have made available a .ppt file of the final slides from the talk, under the tab at the top of the page “presentations”. … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 1 Comment

…but Oxygen is toxic!

Posted on 20 February 2019 by Keith Barrington

So what about the idea of trials examining even higher oxygen saturations? Is there a chance we might further reduce mortality by aiming for saturations in the mid-90’s rather than the low 90’s? Not so fast, even for adults that … Continue reading →

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