Incidence and risk factors of retinopathy of prematurity in extremely low birth weight babies in a tertiary neonatal care unit in northern India

To study the incidence and risk factors of Retinopathy of prematurity in extremely low birth weight babies in a tertiary neonatal care unit in northern India. A prospective cohort study of all neonates born during January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015, with birth weight less than 1000 grams. Demographic details, risk factors and incidence of ROP were studied. Sixty babies were enrolled for the study with mean birth weight of 892.983±112.933 (560 to 1000) grams and mean gestation age of 29.47±2.258 (25-35) weeks. The incidence of ROP in this cohort was 50% (30 infants), out of which 23% (7 infants) required treatment (laser photocoagulation). The statistical analysis of risk factors on univariate analysis revealed significant association for oxygen exposure, apnoea, surfactant use, anaemia, blood transfusion, intraventricular haemorrhage, sepsis and antibiotic use. On multivariate logistic regression analysis anemia and oxygen exposure > week were found to be independent risk factors for development of ROP. The incidence of ROP was although high in this exclusive cohort of babies born <1000g but there is substantial decrease in incidence as compared to that reported in earlier studies. Gestational age <30 wks, being appropriate for gestation rather than small for gestation, anemia and oxygen exposure>1 week were found to be independent risk factors for development of ROP in this cohort.

Disease Burden of Neonatal Care Unit at Al-Bayda Medical Center Al-Bayda Libya

This research was conducted to determine the number, disease pattern, and outcome of the patients admitted at the Neonatal Care Unit (NCU) at Al-Bayda medical center (AMC) in Libya. A retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on all neonates admitted to the NCU between January 2008 and December 2008. The collected data include age, gender, mode and site of delivery, number of gestations, maturity, duration of stay, cause of admission, and outcome. Total infants delivered were 10075, 620 (6.1%) of them were admitted to NCU with a (6.15%) admission rate, 56.5% were male and 43.5% were female, of whom 613 (98.9%) were inborn and 519 (83.7%) were term neonates; 523 (84.4%) of total born were by normal vaginal delivery (NVD). 48.7% of total admissions occurred during the first 24 hours of life. The average length of hospital stay for term births was 5.6 days (SD 5.4) and for preterm 8.7 days (SD 8.55). The common causes of admission were neonatal jaundice (29.3%), followed by neonatal infections (17.6%) were prematurity accounts for (16.3%), and respiratory distress (11.1%). The majority of the admitted neonates improved and were discharged 517 (83.4%), 37(6%) left against medical advice (LAMA) and nineteen (3%) were referred to other specialized hospitals for further management. The neonatal mortality rate was 0.4%, and the overall hospital neonatal mortality rate was 7.6%. According to the cause-specific death rate analysis, prematurity was the most common cause of death (29.8%), followed by sepsis (17%) and birth asphyxia (12.8%). In conclusion, neonatal jaundice, infection, and prematurity complications were the leading causes of morbidity in neonates. The case-fatality rate was high for prematurity, sepsis, and birth asphyxia. Most of these etiologies are preventable to some extent by regular prenatal visits, healthy delivery practices, and timely referral to hospitals which can reduce NCU burden and improve outcomes

Placental acute inflammation infiltrates and pregnancy outcomes: a retrospective cohort study

Chorioamnionitis can be either an infection or a sterile inflammation. This study aims to analyze the prevalence of acute inflammatory lesions of the placenta, the association with a positive result of the microbiological examination, and the fetal-maternal outcomes. This retrospective study considered all single, consecutive pregnancies and their placental pathological examination during 2014–2017. The evidence of funisitis, chorionic vasculitis, and chorioamnionitis was assessed by a pathologist, including stage and grade. Moreover, maternal fever, placental microbiological examination, and neonatal outcomes were also recorded. Among the 5910 pregnancies in the considered period, 1770 had a placental pathological examination, and 358 (6.06%) had acute placental inflammation. Microbiological examination was performed in 125 cases, revealing 64 cases with a positive microbiological outcome. In the presence of acute placental inflammation, there was a higher rate of neonatal cardiopulmonary resuscitation, admission to neonatal intensive care unit, and postnatal death of the newborn. Multivariate analysis inferred that acute inflammation of membranes was a risk factor for neonatal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (OR 2.12; CI.95 1.36–3.31; p < 0.05), acute funisitis was a risk factor for admission to intensive neonatal care unit (OR 3.2; CI.95 1.67–6.12; p < 0.05), and chorionic vasculitis was a risk factor for postnatal death of the newborn (OR 5.38; CI.95 1.37–21.06; p < 0.05). The prevalence of chorioamnionitis was 6.06%, and about half of the cases were sterile inflammation. Chorioamnionitis was associated with higher rates of adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes; in particular, chorionic vasculitis was a risk factor for postnatal death.

The impact of neonatologist performed echocardiography in an Italian neonatal unit

BACKGROUND: The main goal of neonatologist performed echocardiography is to timely assess hemodynamic changes in order to properly manage unsteady neonates. Detailed structural heart assessment remains the domain of pediatric cardiologists. Nonetheless, many neonatologists take on an additional role in diagnosis of congenital heart defects, mostly compelled by the lack of in-house pediatric cardiology services. The experience of neonatologist performed echocardiography in an Italian neonatal unit was reported and the risk benefit profile of this practice was discussed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the echocardiograms undertaken by the neonatologist on infants admitted to the neonatal unit and postnatal ward of the Hospital San Pio in Benevento, over a 2-year period. Details of scans and concordance between neonatologist and cardiologist were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 160 echocardiographic studies were done by the neonatologist on 136 infants. The ECG was requested in a minority of infants. The most common reason for performing the echocardiogram was admission to the neonatal care unit. Around half of the echocardiograms were normal. The remaining scans resulted in functional and structural abnormalities, transitional changes, and doubtful findings. Cardiac anomalies were significantly more likely found in cases of echocardiograms performed for fetal indications. Only 28 patients were eventually referred to the cardiology services. The inter-rater agreement was satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: The hemodynamic assessment of sick infants, as well as triaging and referral of neonates with structural heart diseases are valuable advantages of the echocardiography run by neonatologists. Collaboration with pediatric cardiologists and robust training and accreditation programs are essential to ensure safety and quality service.

Genomic investigation of a suspected Klebsiella pneumoniae outbreak in a neonatal care unit in sub-Saharan Africa

A special-care neonatal unit from a large public hospital in Malawi was noted as having more frequent, difficult-to-treat infections, and a suspected outbreak of multi-drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae was investigated using genomic characterisation. All K. pneumoniae bloodstream infections (BSIs) from patients in the neonatal ward (n=62), and a subset of K. pneumoniae BSI isolates (n=38) from other paediatric wards in the hospital, collected over a 4 year period were studied. After whole genome sequencing, the strain sequence types (STs), plasmid types, virulence and resistance genes were identified. One ST340 clone, part of clonal complex 258 (CC258) and an ST that drives hospital outbreaks worldwide, harbouring numerous resistance genes and plasmids, was implicated as the likely cause of the outbreak. This study contributes molecular information necessary for tracking and characterizing this important hospital pathogen in sub-Saharan Africa.

PENGARUH FOTOTERAPI TERHADAP PENURUNAN TANDA IKTERUS NEONATORUM PATOLOGIS DI RUMAH SAKIT GRANDMED LUBUK PAKAM

Pathological neonatal jaundice is a liver or liver disease which causes yellowing of the baby’s skin and newborn’s eyes. The yellow color that occurs is caused by hight bilirubin in the blood because that baby’s liver is not yet mature enough. Objective : this study generally aims to determine whether there is an effect of phototerapy on the reduction in pathological neonatal care unit (NICU) room at the Grandmed Lubuk Pakam Hospital in 2020. Method : The type of ths research is expermental quantitative with One Group pre Test and post-test,namely research using comparison ( control ) groups, measurements are carried out before and after treatment. Provision of phototerapy is beneficial iin reducing the pathological neonatal jaundice sign. The number of samples with male sex is 31 people ( 57.4%) and the sample of female gender is 23 people (42.6%). Results : The administration of phototeray for the reducton in pathological neonatal jaundice signs using statistical analysis paired t- test obtained a value of p 0,000 <c 0.05. Conclusion : There s significant effect on the administration of phototherapy on the decrease in pathological neonatal jaundice signs. Suggeston : The researcher recommends that the researcher recommends that the researcher recommends that the researcher recommends that the researcher further adds the number of samples and a longer time so that the results obtained are more optimal.

Enterobacter Asburea in Intravenous Infection in Neonatal Born

Introduction: Enterobacter asburiae (E. asburiae) is a facultative anaerobic rarely isolated in neonatal care; the nosocomial infections continue to be a serious problem, associated with increased mortality rates, immediate and long-term morbidity, prolonged hospital stays, and increased cost of care, because of resistant of this specie. Objective: it’s un nosocomial infection of blood, that the first time it’s determined in neonatal hospitalization CHU Mohamed VI Marrakech. Observation: We report in this subject a case of a preterm baby had a septicemia secondary to enterobacter asburea it’s the first time this mirogerme founded in CHU, resulting from contaminated intravenous fluid hospitalized in neonatal care unit, in CHU Mohamed VI Marrakech Conclusion: the case reported in this work pushes us to deepen investigations concerning the resistance and the clinical evolution of the affected patients.

Patient attendance at a pediatric emergency referral hospital in an area with low COVID-19 incidence

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of individual infection control measures and physical distancing on pediatric medical care in a local prefecture in Japan, where the incidence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in pediatric patients was extremely low. We extracted data from hospital records on the number of outpatients, inpatients, infectious disease consultations, and consultations for representative pediatric diseases. We compared attendance in 2017–2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, with 2020, when COVID-19 spread to Japan. There were no COVID-19 patients in the pediatric department during the study period. The total number outpatient visits decreased by 24.4%, and the number of hospital admissions, excluding neonatal care unit admissions, decreased by approximately 35%. There was a marked reduction in the number of hospitalizations for infectious diseases such as influenza (−74.8%) and respiratory syncytial virus infection (−93.5%), and the number of hospitalizations for bronchitis/pneumonia, Kawasaki disease, and bronchial asthma decreased. In contrast, the number of clinical psychological interventions and cases reported to the child guidance center increased. In the context of pandemic infectious diseases, it is important to control the spread of problematic infectious diseases by individual infection control measures and physical distancing. However, it is necessary to maintain social life as much as possible for the mental health and physical development of children.

Identification of thresholds for accuracy comparisons of heart rate and respiratory rate in neonates

Background: Heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) can be challenging to measure accurately and reliably in neonates. The introduction of innovative, non-invasive measurement technologies suitable for resource-constrained settings is limited by the lack of appropriate clinical thresholds for accuracy comparison studies. Methods: We collected measurements of photoplethysmography-recorded HR and capnography-recorded exhaled carbon dioxide across multiple 60-second epochs (observations) in enrolled neonates admitted to the neonatal care unit at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Trained study nurses manually recorded HR, and the study team manually counted individual breaths from capnograms. For comparison, HR and RR also were measured using an automated signal detection algorithm. Clinical measurements were analyzed for repeatability. Results: A total of 297 epochs across 35 neonates were recorded. Manual HR showed a bias of -2.4 (-1.8%) and a spread between the 95% limits of agreement (LOA) of 40.3 (29.6%) compared to the algorithm-derived median HR. Manual RR showed a bias of -3.2 (-6.6%) and a spread between the 95% LOA of 17.9 (37.3%) compared to the algorithm-derived median RR, and a bias of -0.5 (1.1%) and a spread between the 95% LOA of 4.4 (9.1%) compared to the algorithm-derived RR count. Manual HR and RR showed repeatability of 0.6 (interquartile range (IQR) 0.5-0.7), and 0.7 (IQR 0.5-0.8), respectively. Conclusions: Appropriate clinical thresholds should be selected a priori when performing accuracy comparisons for HR and RR. Automated measurement technologies typically use a smoothing or averaging filter, which significantly impacts accuracy. A wider spread between the LOA, as much as 30%, should be considered to account for the observed physiological nuances and within- and between-neonate variability and different averaging methods. Wider adoption of thresholds by data standards organizations and technology developers and manufacturers will increase the robustness of clinical comparison studies.