Category Archives: Neonatal Research

PAS 2108 No4: you little SCAMP!

In the part of England where I was born and spent the early years of my life, and where my parents are from, the Manchester region, ‘scamp’ was a sort of affectionate term for a young child who had done … Continue reading

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PAS 2018 No3: Should we TOLERATE the PDA?

This was another large multicenter trial, designed to determine if routine attempts to close a moderate to large PDA at the end of the first postnatal week decreases the duration of patency, and the incidence of the combined outcome “need … Continue reading

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PAS 2018 No2: let’s STOP-BPD

The STOP-BPD trial was a multicenter trial from Holland, (registered as NTR2768) over 180 babies were randomized to each arm of this trial, they were <30 weeks or less than 1250 g at birth, and were still ventilated at 2 … Continue reading

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PAS 2018 No1: SAIL away (and another mention by a science journalist).

For some reason there is a small epidemic (n=2, that’s a pico-epidemic) of articles about probiotics and necrotising enterocolitis this year in the mainstream press. I was interviewed, and I am mentioned again, in this article on the NOVA “next” … Continue reading

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Important outcomes after extreme prematurity: what do parents think?

There has been remarkably little study of the response to the question posed in the title: what do parents think is important in the outcomes of the very preterm baby? Physicians have focused on developmental progress, often as measured by … Continue reading

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Regular universal antibiotics to reduce infant mortality?

This (Keenan JD, et al. Azithromycin to Reduce Childhood Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The New England journal of medicine. 2018;378(17):1583-92 Open Access) is a new multicenter cluster randomized trial of giving all infants in a community regular azithromycin. If that … Continue reading

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Too much oxygen is bad for adults too!

The systematic review of the neonatal oxygen saturation targeting trials Askie LM, et al. Effects of targeting lower versus higher arterial oxygen saturations on death or disability in preterm infants. Cochrane database of systematic reviews (Online). 2017;4:Cd011190. confirmed the increase … Continue reading

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Glucose gel for hypoglycemia in at-risk babies? Prophylaxis no, treatment yes!

In the ongoing story of how and when to treat lower than average blood sugars in at-risk newborn infants, some clarity for some points is emerging. We know the following: 1. some babies have lower blood sugars than others (!) … Continue reading

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Its now or… later? A good question to ask ELVIS.

This study probably wins the prize for the best trial name in neonatal history, the Early or Late Ventricular Intervention Study, ELVIS. de Vries LS, et al. Treatment thresholds for intervention in posthaemorrhagic ventricular dilation: a randomised controlled trial. Archives … Continue reading

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Teaming up with parents and ex-premies to improve care for babies

On April the XXth I will be running 10 kilometers in the Scotia Bank run, as part of the PAF-Néonat team of Sainte Justine Hospital (PAF means Partenarait Famille). We are raising funds for the partnering with families program, which … Continue reading

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