Tag Archives: Randomized Controlled Trials

Why didn’t erythropoietin improve the outcome of preterm babies?

Posted on 18 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Because that is the result of a newly published RCT of erythropoietin (EPO) for neuroprotection of small preterm babies, no effect. Natalucci G, et al. Effect of Early Prophylactic High-Dose Recombinant Human Erythropoietin in Very Preterm Infants on Neurodevelopmental Outcome … Continue reading →

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The microbiome of plastic tubes in children

Posted on 16 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Petersen SM, et al. Nasogastric feeding tubes from a neonatal department yield high concentrations of potentially pathogenic bacteria – even one day after insertion. Pediatr Res. 2016.  These authors cultured 94 nasogastric feeding tubes from 34 preterm infants. 1 ml … Continue reading →

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Neonatal Updates

Posted on 16 May 2016 by Keith Barrington

Raina A, et al. Treating perinatal asphyxia with theophylline at birth helps to reduce the severity of renal dysfunction in term neonates. Acta Paediatrica. 2016. This was an RCT in 160 full-term babies with perinatal asphyxia and encephalopathy. Babies, who … 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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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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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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Follow up of the PREMILOC post

Posted on 12 April 2016 by Keith Barrington

Further to my post about the PREMILOC trial of routine hydrocortisone supplementation in extremely preterm infants, I received an email response from Olivier Baud, who was generally in agreement with my comments, but doubts the validity of adding the data … Continue reading →

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Inhaled steroids to prevent BPD, another trial.

Posted on 12 April 2016 by Keith Barrington

This time from Japan, Nakamura T, et al. Early inhaled steroid use in extremely low birthweight infants: a randomised controlled trial. Archives of Disease in Childhood – Fetal and Neonatal Edition. 2016. 211 babies with a birth weight less than 1000 … Continue reading →

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Late surfactant supplementation

Posted on 8 April 2016 by Keith Barrington

After the initial phase of surfactant deficiency of the very preterm infant, inhibition and destruction of surfactant are common, the inflammation of the oxygen exposed preterm lung is probably important in the pathophysiology of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and the adverse effects … Continue reading →

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