Towards accurate exclusion of neonatal bacterial meningitis: a feasibility study of a novel 16S rDNA PCR assay.

Background: PCRctic is an innovative assay based on 16S rDNA PCR technology that has been designed to detect a single intact bacterium in a specimen of cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF). The assay's potential for accurate, fast and inexpensive discrimination of bacteria-free CSF makes it an ideal adjunct for confident exclusion of bacterial meningitis in newborn babies where the negative predictive value of bacterial culture is poor. This study aimed to stress-test and optimize PCRctic in the "field conditions" to attain a clinically useful level of specificity.

Obstetric neonatal brachial plexus and facial nerve injuries: A 17 years single tertiary maternity hospital experience.

Objectives: To establish the incidence of obstetric neonatal brachial plexus and facial nerve injuries in a tertiary maternity hospital in the United Kingdom and to identify associated risk factors with an emphasis on the time of delivery.

Study Design: From our hospital electronic data bases we identified all live births born between 2000 and 2016 and those neonates who sustained a nerve injury during delivery. We performed a logistic regression analysis linking "facial nerve injury" and "brachial plexus injury" with variables for which we had complete cohort data including "breech", "gestation", "sex", "birthweight", "day of week", "time of delivery", "method of delivery", "singleton/multiple deliveries" and "number of deliveries per day".

Neonatal birth fractures: a retrospective tertiary maternity hospital review.

We aimed to identify the incidence and types of neonatal birth fractures in a single tertiary maternity hospital in the United Kingdom and to find possible associated factors, including all live births born between 2000 and 2016. We reviewed hospital records and imaging of all neonates who had any imaging done to identify birth fractures. We identified 87,461 consecutive live births.

An outbreak of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in a neonatal intensive care unit: use of a case-control study to investigate and control it and lessons learnt.

Aim: To describe the investigation and management of a meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) outbreak on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the lessons learnt.

Methods: This was an outbreak report and case-control study conducted in a 40-cot NICU in a tertiary referral hospital and included all infants colonized/infected with gentamicin-resistant MRSA.

Intervention: Standard infection-control measures including segregation of infants, barrier precautions, enhanced cleaning, assessment of staff practice including hand hygiene, and increased MRSA screening of infants were implemented.