Pediatrics
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Case Reports
Survey of pediatricians' opinions on donation after cardiac death: are the donors dead?
There has been debate in the ethics literature as to whether the donation-after-cardiac-death donor is dead after 5 minutes of absent circulation. We set out to determine whether pediatricians consider the donation-after-cardiac-death donor as dead. ⋯ Most pediatrician respondents were not confident that a donation-after-cardiac-death donor was dead. This suggests that additional debate about the concept of irreversibility applied to donation after cardiac death is needed.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Outcomes of safety and effectiveness in a multicenter randomized, controlled trial of whole-body hypothermia for neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
Whole-body hypothermia reduced the frequency of death or moderate/severe disabilities in neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in a randomized, controlled multicenter trial. ⋯ Although not powered to test these secondary outcomes, whole-body hypothermia in infants with encephalopathy was safe and was associated with a consistent trend for decreasing frequency of each of the components of disability.
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Common clinical practices often are unsupported by experimental evidence. One example is the administration of sodium bicarbonate to neonates. ⋯ Indeed, there is evidence that this therapy is detrimental. This review examines the history of sodium bicarbonate use in neonatology and the evidence that refutes the clinical practice of administering sodium bicarbonate during cardiopulmonary resuscitation or to treat metabolic acidosis in the NICU.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Oral probiotics prevent necrotizing enterocolitis in very low birth weight preterm infants: a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial.
The goal was to investigate the efficacy of orally administered probiotics in preventing necrotizing enterocolitis for very low birth weight preterm infants. ⋯ Probiotics, in the form of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, fed enterally to very low birth weight preterm infants for 6 weeks reduced the incidence of death or necrotizing enterocolitis.