Tag Archives: Necrotising Enterocolitis

Prebiotics, Probiotics and the microbiome

A series of interesting recent articles: Yang J, et al. Application of Laser Capture Microdissection and 16S rRNA Gene Polymerase Chain Reaction in the Analysis of Bacteria Colonizing the Intestinal Tissue of Neonates With Necrotizing Enterocolitis. Pediatr Infect Dis J. … Continue reading

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Do Blood transfusions trigger NEC? This month the answer is no.

OK, not exactly this month, but “towards the end of last year” wouldn’t have been as good a title. Three case-control studies, with some differences in design and implementation, but all 3 with the same result, no evidence that red … Continue reading

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NICUs are working better: still room for improvement.

As NICUs have become more effective, any proportional incremental improvements will necessarily get smaller, so larger and larger datasets will be needed to show any trends. The NICHD has just published data about survival and major acute morbidities among extremely … Continue reading

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Re-re-re-visited (delayed cord clamping of course)

I received 2 comments about the last posting re: DCC. The way I set up this blog the comments aren’t necessarily very obvious, especially if you visit the home page rather than following a link to the individual posting. So I … Continue reading

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Genetic variants and NEC risk

This post is out of my usual comfort zone, but I thought I’d write about it as it is fascinating, and might lead to something clinical. I don’t understand any of the lab methodology of this study, except to say … Continue reading

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Delayed cord clamping or cord milking for the very preterm newborn… or both?

What should we be doing, given the current state of the evidence, for the very preterm neonate? I think the evidence is now pretty clear that full-term babies have benefits, and no significant harm, from delayed cord clamping, which has … Continue reading

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What is the news about probiotics?

A few things have been happening recently: first of all, the big news was that Solgar recalled ABCDophilus as a result of some contamination of the product. As many of you will probably know, there was fungal contamination of the … Continue reading

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Feeding and NEC

Necrotizing Enterocolitis remains a devastating disease. One of the major causes of mortality in Very Low Birth Weight Infants, it often strikes when babies are starting to do well. Because it is relatively unpredictable, observational studies are potentially useful, but can … Continue reading

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Reassuring Prophylactic Indomethacin Data

One of Annie Janvier’s first research projects was a case control study of the influence of prophylactic indomethacin on intestinal perforations. Under my supervision she analyzed cases of spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP), and we analyzed the influence of prophylactic indomethacin, … Continue reading

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Probiotics prevent NEC in rats too!

Mark Underwood has been very active in the investigations of probiotics and their effects on the neonatal bowel. His new publication is a fascinating exploration of what happens in a rat model of NEC when they receive bifidobacterium infantis, also … Continue reading

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