Tag Archives: Randomized Controlled Trials

Public Citizen are a public danger: part 1

Posted on 24 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

They are at it again. The people in the Public Citizen health research group don’t understand evidence based practice, they don’t understand clinical research and they don’t understand neonatology. Which doesn’t stop them from making a fuss about high quality … Continue reading →

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More about SUPPORT, but this time not the consent forms

Posted on 23 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

The main, surprising, finding of SUPPORT, now confirmed by the other oxygen trials, is that aiming for O2 saturations that were a little lower led to higher mortality. The big question is why? Having a saturation of 85% to 90% … Continue reading →

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Who should get surfactant?

Posted on 23 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

I think the literature is clear, if you need surfactant, the earlier you get it the better. If you don’t need surfactant you are better off never being intubated. So how do we decide? Current management protocols usually put babies … Continue reading →

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Nutritional Catch-Up

Posted on 19 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

This is my attempt to catch up with some interesting publications from the last few weeks, about nutritional interventions and necrotizing enterocolitis. Karagol BS, Zenciroglu A, Okumus N, Polin RA: Randomized controlled trial of slow vs rapid enteral feeding advancements … Continue reading →

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Cervical pessaries? Really?

Posted on 13 August 2013 by Keith Barrington

A new study in the Lancet is a multi-center RCT of the use of a cervical pessary to reduce preterm delivery in twin pregnancies. I must say this sounded a bit unlikely to me, but it turns out there just … Continue reading →

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More SUPPORT controversy

Posted on 16 July 2013 by Keith Barrington

The BMJ has just published an ‘Observations’ piece, with the tag line ‘The Washington Brief’ which would make you think that it is a news item. It is, in contrast, a very biased recounting of some of the controversy raised … Continue reading →

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EPO, re-introducing confusion

Posted on 4 July 2013 by Keith Barrington

I thought that routine erythropoietin (EPO) treatment of preterm infants had been thrown out of the window. It is well known that EPO levels are low in preterms after birth, which is part of the multifactorial pathophysiology of anaemia of … Continue reading →

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We can stop routine suctioning at birth!

Posted on 17 June 2013 by Keith Barrington

I never understood why it was thought to be so important, (indeed by some essential) to stick some sort of suctioning device into the babies mouth, usually right back to the posterior pharyngeal wall, and suck out amniotic fluid. It … Continue reading →

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Probiotic Fungi too?

Posted on 4 June 2013 by Keith Barrington

It seems that probiotic fungi, specifically Saccharomyces boulardii probably don’t prevent NEC. There is one previous study Costalos et al which showed no difference in NEC, but some benefits on secondary outcomes (it was very underpowered for NEC, 87 babies … Continue reading →

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Probiotics work in Practice

Posted on 19 May 2013 by Keith Barrington

For anyone who was at the latest PAS meeting, you probably heard about the presentation of Proprems. This is the latest RCT of probiotics, from Australia and New Zealand, using ABCDophilus, which is interestingly manufactured in New Jersey. The authors … Continue reading →

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