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

Is cows milk just for cows?

Posted on 26 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

A new publication from the trial funded by Prolacta looking at possible benefits of their donor-human-milk derived preparations. This time it is the other comparison from the registered trial. That is; mothers who did not plan to breast feed were approached to … Continue reading →

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We didn’t find what we wanted to find, so we thought we’d re-analyze the data until we found it.

Posted on 26 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

…oh and by the way, we are the manufacturers making the product in question, so we had objective scientific reasons for doing this, no conflict of interest whatever. The commercial sponsors of a negative trial decided that they didn’t like … Continue reading →

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Public Citizen are a public danger: part 2

Posted on 24 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

The other part of the criticisms of Public Citizen, included in their letter to the secretary of the HSS in the USA, in which they call for the TOP (transfusion of preterms) trial to be stopped immediately, are regarding the … Continue reading →

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Public Citizen are a public danger: part 1

Posted on 24 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

They are at it again. The people in the Public Citizen health research group don’t understand evidence based practice, they don’t understand clinical research and they don’t understand neonatology. Which doesn’t stop them from making a fuss about high quality … Continue reading →

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More about SUPPORT, but this time not the consent forms

Posted on 23 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

The main, surprising, finding of SUPPORT, now confirmed by the other oxygen trials, is that aiming for O2 saturations that were a little lower led to higher mortality. The big question is why? Having a saturation of 85% to 90% … Continue reading →

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Who should get surfactant?

Posted on 23 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

I think the literature is clear, if you need surfactant, the earlier you get it the better. If you don’t need surfactant you are better off never being intubated. So how do we decide? Current management protocols usually put babies … Continue reading →

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Susceptibility to Sepsis

Posted on 20 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

It looks like those Toll-like receptors may indeed be important. I included a review article in a previous Neonatal Updates, which was nice introduction to these transmembrane receptors that are important in immune responses. A new article suggests that variants … Continue reading →

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Teaching Well

Posted on 19 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

If you are a clinical teacher, and you have access to the Lancet, you should read this Reilly BM: Inconvenient truths about effective clinical teaching. The Lancet, 370(9588):705-711. Great insights, and good guidance for teachers.  

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End of Life, at Birth

Posted on 19 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

An Op-Ed piece in the NY Times a couple of weeks ago had that title. I was rather disappointed by the piece, written by an experienced neonatologist; now I suppose for a piece written for the NY Times the fact … Continue reading →

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Nutritional Catch-Up

Posted on 19 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

This is my attempt to catch up with some interesting publications from the last few weeks, about nutritional interventions and necrotizing enterocolitis. Karagol BS, Zenciroglu A, Okumus N, Polin RA: Randomized controlled trial of slow vs rapid enteral feeding advancements … Continue reading →

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