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

Perpetuating Prejudice against Preterms: 1. Inappropriate simplistic rules are unethical.

Towards the end of last year the Canadian Pediatric Society published a new ‘position statement’. These are official proclamations of the society, supposedly based on the best available evidence to guide practice, and which become de facto standards of care. … Continue reading

Posted in The CPS antenatal counselling statement | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Preterm Babies are Human Beings Too

The Canadian Medical Association Journal has just published a Commentary by 2 neonatologists from the USA. Batton D, Batton B: Advocating for equality for preterm infants. Canadian Medical Association Journal 2013. The commentary is in response to the CPS recent … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 35 Comments

100,000 page Views!

I guess I am now an established blogger… just over 300 posts in about 18 months, 100,000 page views from 151 different countries. For a while I thought I must be blocked in China, but I now have had 2 … Continue reading

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Palivizumab for late preterm infants, can we afford it?

It is quite clear that palivizumab reduces the incidence of RSV disease, and probably also the severity, among those who still get it nevertheless. It is just as clear that it is extremely expensive. If RSV is likely to make … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Neonatal Mortality: good news… could do better.

The new report of the WHO Global Health Observatory notes that child mortality, infant mortality and neonatal mortality have all fallen substantially in the last 23 years. The efforts toward obtaining the millennium goals are bearing fruit. http://www.who.int/gho/child_health/mortality/neonatal_infant_text/en/index.html The detailed … Continue reading

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Neonatal Updates #40

Oops, the last one was #40, except it wasn’t, this is the real #40, as we are heading to a big blog threshold soon, I will probably stop numbering these! Field D: Neonatal ECMO Study of Temperature (NEST): A Randomized … Continue reading

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Registry Trials

The latest PNEJM reports a large trial in adults (over 7000 patients randomized) in a very tasty trial, known as TASTE (Thrombus Aspiration in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction in Scandinavia). The trial was among patients who were undergoing coronary angiography and … Continue reading

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Reducing BPD by Avoiding Intubation

Sometimes more than one article gets published almost simultaneously on the same topic, sometimes with similar methodology. Two systematic reviews of the effects of trying to avoid or curtail endotracheal intubation in order to protect the lungs have just been … Continue reading

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Brain Death: a fiction that has outlived its usefuleness

It may come as a surprise to some readers that I regard ‘Brain Death’ as a fiction. But brain death was invented by a US president’s commission as a way of deciding that patients were dead when they manifestly were … Continue reading

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How to deliver CPAP

Two almost simultaneous articles, one from the Melbourne group. One from Colm O’Donnell in Dublin who has worked with the Melbourne group in the past Kamlin COF, Schilleman K, Dawson JA, Lopriore E, Donath SM, Schmölzer GM, Walther FJ, Davis … Continue reading

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