Tag Archives: Ethics

Active intervention at 22 weeks gestation, is it futile?

Posted on 29 October 2018 by Keith Barrington

In order to respond to the question posed in the title we need first to agree on what “futile” means. It could mean “it never works” or, “it can work but the ultimate result is so bad that it isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

New Published Letter, a response to the ‘number needed to suffer’.

Posted on 2 February 2018 by Keith Barrington

The new issue of Acta Paediatrica (Februray 2018) includes a letter I wrote in response to a commentary written by a paediatric anaesthetist, Dr Lönnqvist. If you receive an email with a description of the contents of each issue, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Time to abandon the Papile classification? (part 2)

Posted on 7 December 2017 by Keith Barrington

As I mentioned in the last post, the initial report of outcomes by Bassan and others showed that the infants with severity score 0, (unilateral haemorrhage without midline shift affecting one zone) had reasonably good outcomes, 7 of 8 had … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The end of the Papile classification? (part 1)

Posted on 28 November 2017 by Keith Barrington

In 1978 Lu-Ann Papile published a landmark article detailing the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in 46 VLBW preterm infants using CT scanning, describing the differing extent of hemorrhage that may be seen, and developing a grading system (there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Ethical conflicts and moral distress in the NICU, are they all bad?

Posted on 23 November 2017 by Keith Barrington

The term “moral distress” was coined by nursing researchers who were, generally, referring to situations in which nurses were constrained to act in opposition to their ethical beliefs, usually by having to follow medical orders that they disagreed with. More … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Guidelines to help parents who have lost one of twins

Posted on 5 November 2017 by Keith Barrington

Many readers of this blog will recognize the name of Nick Embleton as someone who has done a great deal of nutrition research, and research into the intestinal microbiome of very preterm infants. He also has a major interest in … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Longer-term outcomes of very preterm babies, what should we measure, when and why?

Posted on 29 March 2017 by Keith Barrington

Two recent articles have discussed the issue of what outcomes we should measure to analyze neurological and developmental progress in the preterm baby. Both are thoughtful critical pieces that say many things that we need to think about as we … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Antenatal Consultations before very preterm birth; what do parents want?

Posted on 20 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

Gaucher N, et al. Personalized Antenatal Consultations for Preterm Labor: Responding to Mothers’ Expectations. The Journal of pediatrics. 2016. Call me biased, but I think is a game-changer. (One of the authors is my wife and colleague, another is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Long term survival in trisomy 13 and 18

Posted on 19 August 2016 by Keith Barrington

After my previous post on this topic, John Lantos wrote a comment pointing out this recent publication, Nelson KE, et al. Survival and Surgical Interventions for Children With Trisomy 13 and 18. JAMA. 2016;316(4):420-8. It is a large regional cohort, identified from … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocating for impaired children, Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Two New Publications

Posted on 15 August 2016 by Keith Barrington

After a few weeks break (for a number of reasons), I’m ready to start blogging again! I’m sure you have all missed the succinct and perceptive critiques of the recent neonatal literature, but today I will start with 2 publications … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment