Acta paediatrica
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Comparative Study
Psychological development in children born with very low birth weight after severe intrauterine growth retardation: a 10-year follow-up study.
Children born small for gestational age (SGA) and children having very low birth weight, less than 1500 g, are claimed to be at risk of developmental problems, even when obvious pathology and disability are absent. In this study, sensorimotor and cognitive development of 14 medically healthy, very-low-birth-weight and small-for-gestational-age children were investigated. The children were born at the Karolinska Hospital between 1979 and 1981. ⋯ These children, who also tended to be born earliest (less than 33 weeks), had a high incidence of behavioral and educational problems. These findings are consistent with the view that the very preterm infant develops a different neurobehavioral organization than a full-term infant. Developmental deficits may become increasingly evident in the early school years.
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Review Case Reports
The value of peritoneal dialysis in the treatment of severe ethanol intoxication in childhood revised.
We treated a girl aged 3.5 years (15 kg) with ethanol intoxication, using peritoneal dialysis. The blood ethanol concentration was 6.4 g/l (640 mg/dl; 138.9 mmol/l). It was calculated that the child drank a total amount of 67.2 g of ethanol (4.5 g/kg). ⋯ In childhood the ethanol elimination rate with peritoneal dialysis is only slightly faster in comparison to the high spontaneous elimination rate. We conclude that treatment of severe ethanol intoxication should include mainly the maintenance of the vital functions and the meticulous control of blood sugar levels and acid-base disturbances, especially in children. Indications for dialysis are complications caused by ethanol and resistant to supportive therapy, such as seizures, metabolic disturbances, persistent hypoglycemia and the possibility of combined intoxication with other dialysable drugs.
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Over a three-year period, 12 infants received dextrose/insulin infusions for severe hyperkalaemia from a mean age of 24 h. The infants were born after 24 to 26 weeks of gestation and weighed 730 +/- 172 g (mean +/- SD) at birth. Serum potassium concentration ranged from 7.4 to 8.4 mmol/l (7.7 +/- 0.4 mmol/l; mean +/- SD). ⋯ Hyperglycaemia was the major problem during infusion and was resistant to increases in insulin concentrations. Normoglycaemia was achieved in 10 infants. The hypertonic solution consisted of a dextrose/insulin ratio of 2.2 +/- 0.6 g/IU, which delivered glucose at a rate of 0.46 +/- 0.15 g/kg/h, in addition to the pre-existing stable maintenance glucose intake.