Category Archives: Neonatal Research

CMV transmission by breast milk in the very preterm, how important is it?

Posted on 11 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Over the past couple of years there have been quite a few articles addressing this issue, so I guess it must be important. The results of all these studies are not consistent, however, Kelly MS, et al. Postnatal Cytomegalovirus Infection … Continue reading →

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Is breast-milk really best?

Posted on 11 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Although many people (including myself) are convinced that human breast milk is the preferable nutrition for human babies, including the preterm, some of the evidence regarding benefits is shaky. For example the evidence that breast milk feeding reduces late-onset sepsis. … Continue reading →

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The multidisciplinary conference, a parental view.

Posted on 10 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

When patients are more complex than average, or there are multiple complications, or difficult ethical issues, we frequently organize “multidisciplinary conferences” which involve all the medical consultants and nursing, often also our social work and/or psychology personnel and the spiritual … Continue reading →

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Erythropoietin for Asphyxia

Posted on 9 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

A preliminary RCT in babies undergoing therapeutic hypothermia (Wu YW, et al. High-dose Erythropoietin and Hypothermia for Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy: A Phase II Trial. Pediatrics. 2016). They randomized 50 babies with HIE who were being cooled to 1000 units/kg on days 1,2,3,5, … Continue reading →

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Necrotizing Enterocolitis: manipulating the microbiome, part 3

Posted on 9 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Abdulkadir B, et al. Stool bacterial load in preterm infants with necrotising enterocolitis. Early Hum Dev. 2016;95:1-2.  More work from the Newcastle group, this time the group decided not to look at the proportion of different bugs in the stools, … Continue reading →

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Necrotizing Enterocolitis: manipulating the microbiome, part 2

Posted on 6 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

The Newcastle, UK, group has published an article about the intestinal microbiome of babies receiving routine probiotic prophylaxis. Abdulkadir B, et al. Routine Use of Probiotics in Preterm Infants: Longitudinal Impact on the Microbiome and Metabolome. Neonatology. 2016;109(4):239-47. The authors studied 7 … Continue reading →

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Necrotizing Enterocolitis: manipulating the microbiome, part 1

Posted on 6 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Some very interesting recent publications about NEC, so I will post a multi-part bumper posting. The first has just been published (in tomorrow’s Lancet) Warner BB, et al. Gut bacteria dysbiosis and necrotising enterocolitis in very low birthweight infants: a prospective … Continue reading →

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Which Surfactant is best?

Posted on 5 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Singh N, et al. Comparison of animal-derived surfactants for the prevention and treatment of respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants. Cochrane database of systematic reviews (Online). 2015;12:CD010249. This is the sort of systematic review that I find really helpful. Some … Continue reading →

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Blood pressures in very immature babies

Posted on 4 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

One recent publication initially looked very interesting from the title, Vesoulis ZA, et al. Empirical estimation of the normative blood pressure in infants <28 weeks gestation using a massive data approach. J Perinatol. 2015. Unfortunately the authors interpretation of ‘massive data’ is … Continue reading →

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Unilateral DNR orders?

Posted on 4 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

A paper from Mark Mercurio and colleagues has been making some waves. In it they address the question of unilateral DNAR orders (previously called Do Not Resuscitate DNR orders, but now often referred to, more accurately as Do Not Attempt … Continue reading →

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