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

Too much antibiotics, part 2

Posted on 28 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

The multicentre project, that I started the last post with, has just published a new important article, which addresses the duration of antibiotic treatment (Dimopoulou V, et al. Antibiotic exposure for culture-negative early-onset sepsis in late-preterm and term newborns: an … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Too much antibiotics, part 1.

Posted on 25 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

An important multi-centre observational study examines how many newborn infants, term or late-preterm are receiving antibiotics, for how long, and the responses to negative cultures. Centres from Europe, Australia and North America are represented. Data collection differs between the participants … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Does preterm formula cause NEC?

Posted on 23 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

The question in the title was recently adjudicated in US courtrooms, with an enormous award of damages to the family of a premature infant who developed Necrotising Enterocolitis, and survived, but has, apparently, major neurodevelopmental issues. In July, the jury … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 4 Comments

Long-term outcomes after preterm birth; the next step

Posted on 9 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

I usually try to avoid buzz-words and phrases like “paradigm shift” but it applies well, I think, to what is happening in the world of neonatal follow-up, and more broadly, I hope, to neonatal research as a whole. Neonatologists were … Continue reading →

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What should saturation targets be in established chronic lung disease with pulmonary hypertension?

Posted on 4 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

This question has been puzzling me recently, as we are trying to evaluate our current approach, and whether it needs to be changed. My bias has been that oxygen is toxic, and we should only give the minimum needed to … Continue reading →

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Making decisions for extreme preterms, do parents regret their choices?

Posted on 2 October 2024 by Keith Barrington

In 2022 we published an article addressing the question in the title. As part of the Parents’ Voices Project, we questioned families of very preterm infants at follow up about their experiences prior to, during, and after the NICU. 98% … Continue reading →

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Improving human milk for preterm infants.

Posted on 12 September 2024 by Keith Barrington

Mother’s own milk (MoM) is clearly preferable for the enteral nutrition of all infants, with major advantages demonstrated among the preterm. Despite one bizarre, flawed, and seriously biased article, that I have criticized on this blog, the next best substrate … Continue reading →

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Sending home preterm babies with Inguinal Hernias

Posted on 22 August 2024 by Keith Barrington

It has been dogma for quite some time that newborn preterm infants with Inguinal Hernias (I will resist the temptation to latinise the plural, although I was brought up hearing about ‘herniae’) should have them surgically fixed prior to discharge … Continue reading →

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Colostrum and feeding preterm babies

Posted on 14 August 2024 by Keith Barrington

Forgive me if you are already convinced, but I remain somewhat sceptical of the benefits of routinely painting the inside of the preterm infant’s mouth with colostrum. Even though I have supported the introduction of the practice on our NICU, … Continue reading →

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Nosocomial infections, “Hospital-Acquired Infections”, and now “Hospital-Onset Bacteremia”

Posted on 7 August 2024 by Keith Barrington

It has been clear for a while that the focus of some groups and some publications on only infections associated with central venous catheters, so-called CLABSI, was missing the point. You could completely eliminate CLABSI by not using central lines, … Continue reading →

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