Tag Archives: Randomized Controlled Trials

What is hypoglycaemia? Part 3. Part of the answer!

Posted on 14 February 2020 by Keith Barrington

The only way that we can find the answer to the question of what threshold blood sugar we should use to treat babies with low blood sugars is a prospective RCT, and Behold! Look! Lo! How say you? (van Kempen … Continue reading →

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Erythropoietin for brain protection in the very preterm? Not worth Penuts.

Posted on 17 January 2020 by Keith Barrington

That isn’t a mis-spelling, just a bad attempt to play with the acronym for a good trial; the PENUT trial, just published in the (FP)NEJM. (Juul SE, et al. A Randomized Trial of Erythropoietin for Neuroprotection in Preterm Infants. N … Continue reading →

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Oropharyngeal airways for resuscitation of the preterm? Throw them away!

Posted on 18 December 2019 by Keith Barrington

When I saw the title of this new study I thought immediately this has to either be by Peter Davis or one or more of his disciples… former trainees, I mean. In fact it is both: Kamlin COF, et al. … Continue reading →

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Oxygen for resuscitation of the very preterm

Posted on 17 December 2019 by Keith Barrington

One of the paradoxes of neonatal respiratory control physiology is that hypoxia depresses respiration whilst hyperoxia stimulates breathing efforts. In fact it’s not such a paradox, prolonged hypoxia in adults decreases respiratory drive also. But could this be relevant in … Continue reading →

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Platelet transfusion threshholds: 25,000 even for the highest risk infants?

Posted on 6 December 2019 by Keith Barrington

The Planet-2 trial that I posted about when it first came out showed no benefit among preterm infants, <34 weeks gestation when they received platelet transfusions at a threshold of 50,00 compared to waiting until they dropped to 25,000. I … Continue reading →

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Progesterone doesn’t prevent prematurity?

Posted on 25 November 2019 by Keith Barrington

Progesterone analogues, including 17-OH progesterone caproate have been investigated over the last several years for prevention of prematurity. In the pivotal trial from 2003 17OHPC intramuscularly once per week was shown to reduce prematurity at less than 37 weeks, less … Continue reading →

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How fast to feed?

Posted on 14 October 2019 by Keith Barrington

One of the recurring themes in this blog is that good, large enough, prospective RCTs do not necessarily reproduce the results of prior smaller trials, and often do not reproduce the findings of observational studies. Specifically, I have mentioned previously … Continue reading →

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What respiratory outcomes are important?

Posted on 31 May 2019 by Keith Barrington

When bronchopulmonary dysplasia was first described by Northway in 1967 he didn’t try to produce a definition, his paper was a description of a small number of preterm survivors of high oxygen and positive pressure ventilation. He noted some years … Continue reading →

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High-flow in non-tertiary neonatal units: Hunting for answers. #EBNEO

Posted on 27 May 2019 by Keith Barrington

I think Brett Manley is going for the record as the person with the highest proportion of his publications in the FPNEJM, he now has 3, with 2 of them as first author. This is the HUNTER trial where babies … Continue reading →

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Research Outcomes in Neonatology : must do better.

Posted on 24 May 2019 by Keith Barrington

When planning a research project with neonatal patients the first question should be, what am I investigating? The PICO outline : standing for Patients, Intervention, Controls (or comparison) and Outcome, is a standardized way of asking the simple question. If … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 3 Comments