American journal of perinatology
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Emergency administration of medication based on birthweight is often required in newborn resuscitation. Actual weighing is often delayed because of the emergency situation. Therefore drugs are given according to weight estimates by physicians or nurses. ⋯ The tape OFC (7.8% error) was more accurate than staffs' estimates (26% error) in these growth-retarded infants. The clinical precision of the tape was 3% with an intrameasurer variability of 5%. We conclude that estimating the birthweight in infants using our tape method is a practical and more accurate way than staff estimates, especially for low birthweight and small for gestational age infants.
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A thermal manikin of the size of a 1 kg premature baby has been constructed. The nonevaporative heat loss from eight different regions and the total heat loss were measured. The measurements of heat loss have high repeatability and the values are in good agreement with measurements of dry heat loss for premature babies, using indirect calorimetry. ⋯ The total heat loss was found to be 20 to 30 W/m2 with both methods at ambient temperatures between 15 degrees and 25 degrees C. Treatment on a heated, water-filled mattress provides a means of direct conductive heat input to the baby, with a conductive heat transfer coefficient of 0.4 W/degrees C or 21 W/m2 degrees C. The thermal manikin appears to provide an accurate method for assessment of the thermal conditions in neonatal care.
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Case Reports
In utero conversion of supraventricular tachycardia with digoxin and procainamide at 17 weeks' gestation.
The earliest reported case of fetal supraventricular tachycardia at 17 weeks' gestation causing hydrops fetalis is presented. Maternal treatment with digoxin and procainamide successfully cardioverted the fetus with resolution of the hydrops. Using this combination, sinus rhythm was maintained until term.
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It has recently been reported that the use of halogenated agents during balanced general anesthesia may result in an increase in blood loss associated with cesarean section. This report has been criticized for failure to control for a variety of other factors that may have contributed to the increased blood loss, particularly the indication for and type of cesarean section. The present study was designed in an attempt to resolve this criticism. ⋯ A greater proportion of women undergoing general anesthesia experienced a postoperative decrease in hematocrit of 5 vol% or more compared with patients receiving regional anesthesia (10 of 42 versus 5 of 75, p = 0.018). Thus, we conclude that women undergoing uncomplicated elective repeat cesarean section under general anesthesia supplemented with a halogenated agent are at risk for increased blood loss compared with those women receiving regional anesthesia. However, the increased blood loss was not clinically significant in this study, since none of the patients required transfusion.
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Of 191 patients with birthweight less than 1500 gm admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit in a 2-year period, 41 underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Eleven of 41 very low birthweight (VLBW) (27%) survived to be discharged. None of the infants who received CPR after 72 hours of life survived. ⋯ This study confirmed the very poor survival rate after CPR in VLBW infants. We conclude that performance of CPR in patients with vasopressor unresponsive hypotension or previous delivery room resuscitation should be considered a rescue or experimental treatment and parents should be given the option of no resuscitation. Future research efforts should be directed to better the understanding and treatment of cardiovascular dysfunction prior to cardiac arrest.