Author Archives: Keith Barrington

Unknown's avatar

About Keith Barrington

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

High Flow Nasal Cannulae: poor man’s CPAP?

The title is how I sometimes refer to HFNC, but one could ask whether that is all there is to high flow, is it just another way to deliver CPAP, but with no control, or knowledge, of the pressure delivered? … Continue reading

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

Executive Function?

Raju TNK, Mercer BM, Burchfield DJ, Joseph GF. Periviable birth: executive summary of a Joint Workshop by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American College … Continue reading

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

Necrotising Enterocolitis: is abdominal ultrasound helpful?

I am still not convinced. (Maybe I could ask, and answer, the same thing about abdominal radiography!) In recent years in my practice we have had examples of echographic diagnosis of intramural gas in stable infants who had an abdominal … Continue reading

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

Better research, for better care

I hope this commentary in JAMA receives a lot of ‘likes’! Eapen ZJ, Lauer MS, Temple RJ. The imperative of overcoming barriers to the conduct of large, simple trials. JAMA. 2014;311(14):1397-8. The commentary includes a report of a conference about … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Leave a comment

Retraction of a systematic review

Exactly when should an article be retracted? That is not so easy a question to answer, fraud and significant data or image manipulation are one fairly obvious group of reasons. Making errors and/or poor research design are more tricky. When … Continue reading

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

Neonatal Updates

Corvaglia L, Martini S, Battistini B, Rucci P, Aceti A, Faldella G. Bolus versus continuous feeding: effects on splanchnic and cerebral tissue oxygenation in healthy preterm infants. Pediatr Res. 2014. During a 6 hour period, preterm infants had either a … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pulse Oximetry Screening : It’s About Time

It is about time! Timely diagnosis, and timely intervention for children with potentially lethal cardiac defects make an enormous individual difference to their survival and other outcomes. A new enormous study in the lancet from China (over 120,000 babies screened) … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Leave a comment

Treating pneumothoraces? Either a tube or leave them alone.

I never understood why it was recommended to give 100% oxygen to treat a pneumothorax. I think the idea was that the gas in the pneumothorax could be replaced by oxygen which would then be reabsorbed more quickly if we … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Something else that doesn’t work in sepsis; albumin

Another multi-center RCT in adults with severe sepsis or septic shock with a negative result. This time 1800 adults in 100 ICUs in Italy were randomized. Fluid boluses were either crystalloid or 20% albumin and crystalloid. Blood pressure was somewhat … Continue reading

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

Bloody Placentas

No, literally. There is now quite good evidence of the advantages of delayed cord clamping in the term infant, with most particularly an improvement in iron stores in the baby that has lasting effects during the first year of life. … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | Leave a comment