Category Archives: Neonatal Research

Culture negative sepsis: what is it?

One of the things that I have wondered about over the years is whether infants who appear to be infected, but who have negative cultures, might have viral infections. A new study suggests that this is not rare. Kidszun A, et … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

New Publication

Just arrived on-line: a systematic review and meta-analysis (I can imagine Annie’s eyes glazing over right now as she reads those words) of neonatal resuscitation programs. Pammi M, et al. Newborn Resuscitation Training Programmes Reduce Early Neonatal Mortality. Neonatology. 2016;110(3):210-24. Available free … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 1 Comment

I want a Guarantee.

Enomoto M, et al. Effect of Volume Guarantee in Preterm Infants on High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation: A Pilot Study. American journal of perinatology. 2016(EFirst). One of the things that really bugs me (and there are many, as my gentle readers will … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Making Good Decisions; part 2

Green J, et al. Quality versus quantity: The complexities of quality of life determinations for neonatal nurses. Nurs Ethics. 2016. This study used a mixture of quantitative (survey of over 400 nurses) and qualitative (interviews with 24 nurses) methods. The … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Making Good Decisions; part 1

White DB, et al. Prevalence of and Factors Related to Discordance About Prognosis Between Physicians and Surrogate Decision Makers of Critically Ill Patients. JAMA. 2016;315(19):2086. This is a really cool study among families who had a family member in the … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | 4 Comments

Neonatal Updates

Härkin P, et al. Paracetamol Accelerates Closure of the Ductus Arteriosus after Premature Birth: A Randomized Trial. The Journal of pediatrics. 2016. Despite all the interest in paracetamol (acetaminophen in N America) for ductal closure, most of the published data so far … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Leave a comment

Why didn’t erythropoietin improve the outcome of preterm babies?

Because that is the result of a newly published RCT of erythropoietin (EPO) for neuroprotection of small preterm babies, no effect. Natalucci G, et al. Effect of Early Prophylactic High-Dose Recombinant Human Erythropoietin in Very Preterm Infants on Neurodevelopmental Outcome … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The microbiome of plastic tubes in children

Petersen SM, et al. Nasogastric feeding tubes from a neonatal department yield high concentrations of potentially pathogenic bacteria – even one day after insertion. Pediatr Res. 2016.  These authors cultured 94 nasogastric feeding tubes from 34 preterm infants. 1 ml … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Neonatal Updates

Raina A, et al. Treating perinatal asphyxia with theophylline at birth helps to reduce the severity of renal dysfunction in term neonates. Acta Paediatrica. 2016. This was an RCT in 160 full-term babies with perinatal asphyxia and encephalopathy. Babies, who … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How to define BPD

An article published at the end of 2015, (I only just got the full-text) compared 3 diagnostic criteria for defining BPD. The original 36 week threshold by Andy Shennan, the NIH workshop definition, and the ‘physiologic’ definition requiring a room-air … Continue reading

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | Leave a comment