Tag Archives: Randomized Controlled Trials

Breast = best: past your eyes?

Posted on 20 March 2013 by Keith Barrington

The title is from one of those bad punny jokes that you never forget, about taking a bath in milk (pasteurized? No just up to my chin. Boom, boom). For the readers of this blog who are not native English … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Pacifiers (soothers, dummies) are friendly to babies

Posted on 19 March 2013 by Keith Barrington

The baby friendly initiative has been a force for improving breast-feeding rates, with many sensible parts to the program. Unfortunately some of it isn’t evidence based, such as the prohibition of what I will call soothers. I’m originally from England … Continue reading →

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Oh No; not renal dose dopamine again!

Posted on 13 March 2013 by Keith Barrington

This is the sort of thing that really irritates me: If you report ‘we did X, and Y happened’ the obvious question should be, ‘what would have happened if you didn’t do X?’ That is called having controls! It is … Continue reading →

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Leave my gut alone!

Posted on 5 February 2013 by Keith Barrington

Many things that we put in the intestines of preterm infants increase the risk of necrotising enterocolitis, including xanthan gum, kayexalate, and now, it seems, gastrografin. A group from Vienna performed a masked RCT in 96 very low birth weight, … Continue reading →

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Iron therapy for anemia of the preterm; now I’m confused!

Posted on 29 January 2013 by Keith Barrington

I thought I knew, sort of, what to do about iron supplementation in the preterm. Preterm babies outgrew their iron supply, there isn’t very much in breast milk, and you need to supplement to minimize the appearance of anemia of … Continue reading →

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Slow Flow

Posted on 22 January 2013 by Keith Barrington

I have worked in a couple of NICUs in the past where infants were placed on low flow room air by nasal cannulae. The idea, I was told, was that a bit of flow would help the babies to inhale. … Continue reading →

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Supporting oxygen limits

Posted on 19 January 2013 by Keith Barrington

The initial results of the SUPPORT trial examining the effects of different oxygen limits stopped a lot of us in our tracks. We started these trials because most of us thought that aiming for lower oxygen saturation targets would reduce … Continue reading →

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Testing treatments

Posted on 14 January 2013 by Keith Barrington

Imogen Evans, Hazel Thornton, Iain Chalmers, and Paul Glasziou have written a great book about why we need to do clinical trials, with introductory chapters about how they should be done. The second edition of their book is available free … Continue reading →

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New agents for hemodynamic support; how to evaluate them?

Posted on 1 December 2012 by Keith Barrington

I have only ever prescribed a vasopressin infusion once for a baby. An infant was dying of septic shock and I done everything that I thought might help, without any evident benefit. So I decided to try vasopressin, based on … Continue reading →

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Erythromycin: not another toxic placebo!

Posted on 29 November 2012 by Keith Barrington

Erythromycin is an antibiotic. This much is true. It is active against mycoplasma and against ureaplasmas, but is very poor at actually eradicating them. It also stimulates motilin receptors in the bowel, that is why it increases bowel activity, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , | 2 Comments