Category Archives: Neonatal Research

Oxygen, transfusions, and NEC

Posted on 31 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

What causes NEC! The answer is ‘who knows?’, or perhaps a better one would be ‘its complicated…’ You probably need an immature gut, gut mucosal injury, inflammation and cytokine release, and an abnormal microbiome, all of which probably interact in … Continue reading →

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Transfusion Associated Necrotizing EnteroColitis?

Posted on 29 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

I’m still not absolutely sure about TANEC, as it now seems to be called. It is certainly possible that transfusions could trigger gut injury in very preterm babies, but how to prove it? Even if the temporal association was absolutely … Continue reading →

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Septic Shock; 3 negative trials

Posted on 24 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Three trials back to back in the PNEJM (that’s the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine for any new readers) in adults with septic shock are disappointing: Early Goal Directed Therapy has become a dogma in recent years; it even … Continue reading →

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Pressure-Volume loops are not consistently interpreted

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

In case you remember my little Survey Monkey questionnaire on pressure volume loops, and were wondering about the responses, there were about 100 people who wasted a few minutes on the survey. Most were from medical professionals, (mostly neonatologists and … Continue reading →

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Publishing research results, can do better.

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Trial registration was supposed to reduce publication bias, and also improve the quality of publications. Ensuring that what investigators say they did, is what they actually did. Becker JE, Krumholz HM, Ben-Josef G, Ross JS. Reporting of results in ClinicalTrials.gov … Continue reading →

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Neonatal Updates : Therapeutic hypothermia

Posted on 21 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Three recent articles dealing with the effects of therapeutic hypothermia: Drury PP, Gunn ER, Bennet L, Gunn AJ. Mechanisms of Hypothermic Neuroprotection. Clin Perinatol. 2014;41(1):161-75. the first is an excellent review article describing how hypothermia works, SPOILER ALERT, its mostly … Continue reading →

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Hypotension after PDA ligation

Posted on 19 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

A new prospective multi-center evaluation, of cardiac function and the causes of hypotension after PDA ligation, has just published data about adrenal function. Clyman RI, et al: Hypotension following patent ductus arteriosus ligation: The role of adrenal hormones. The Journal … Continue reading →

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S’il suffisait d’aimer

Posted on 18 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

Sainte Justine is a unique hospital, we are a ‘full-service’ children’s hospital with an integrated maternity service. The obstetricians, of course, think that we are a maternity hospital with a children’s hospital tacked on! We have a fund-raiser at the … Continue reading →

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Please, please, not ABBA!

Posted on 18 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

I think whoever designed this study should be subjected to prolonged and unrelenting auditory torture. the only thing worse than ABBA that I can think of would have been Rolf Harris’s 2 little boys; so that is the sentence I … Continue reading →

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Sticking needles into babies doesn’t reduce colic. Who’d have thought…

Posted on 17 March 2014 by Keith Barrington

More nonsense, this time acupuncture for babies! Ninety babies were randomized in a multicenter trial of sticking needles into non-existent meridians to channel imaginary Qi energy. Unfortunately the condition they were investigating, infantile colic, causes a lot of real distress … Continue reading →

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