Short course of intravenous antibiotics in the treatment of uncomplicated proven neonatal bacterial sepsis: A systematic review.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and harms of a short (7-10 days) compared with a standard (10-14 days) duration of antibiotics in culture-proven neonatal sepsis for reducing all-cause mortality, treatment failure and duration of hospitalisation.

Methods: Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane CENTRAL were searched for randomised trials.

Results: We included five studies, all conducted in India (447 infants with a gestational age greater than 32 weeks).

Early life nociceptive stimulus and fentanyl exposure increase hippocampal neurogenesis and anxiety but do not affect spatial learning and memory.

This study aimed to determine whether preemptive fentanyl administration in neonatal rats reduces the impact of a nociceptive stimulus initiated during the first day of life (P1) on hippocampal neurogenesis, behavior, and learning. At P1, Wistar rat pups received either a subcutaneous injection of fentanyl (F) before intraplantar injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) (CFA + F group), an isolated injection of CFA (CFA group), or subcutaneous injection of fentanyl without CFA injection (F). Control animals received saline injections using the same route and volume as the treatment groups.

Does neonatal manipulation on continuous or alternate days change maternal behavior?

Maternal separation and neonatal manipulation of pups produce changes in maternal behavior after the dam-pup reunion. Here, we examined whether continuous versus alternating days of neonatal manipulation during the first 8 postnatal days produces differential changes in maternal and non-maternal behaviors in rats. We found that both maternal separation protocols increased anogenital licking after dam-pup reunion, reflecting increased maternal care of pups.

Impact of bundle implementation on the incidence of peri/intraventricular hemorrhage among preterm infants: a pre-post interventional study.

Background: Peri/intraventricular hemorrhage (PIVH) is a frequent cause of death and morbidity among preterm infants. Few studies have addressed the use of bundles for preventing PIVH.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a bundle of interventions designed to decrease the incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage at hospital discharge among preterm infants.

LPS-Induced Systemic Neonatal Inflammation: Blockage of P2X7R by BBG Decreases Mortality on Rat Pups and Oxidative Stress in Hippocampus of Adult Rats.

Neonatal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure-induced brain inflammation has been associated to neuronal injury and facilitates the development of models of neurological disorders in adult rats. The P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) plays a fundamental role in the onset and maintenance of the inflammatory cascade. Brilliant blue G (BBG), a P2X7R antagonist, has been shown to effectively promote neuroinflammatory protection.

Perinatal factors associated with amplitude-integrated electroencephalography abnormalities in preterm infants on the first day of life.

Objective: Evaluate the association between perinatal factors and amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram abnormalities in preterm infants on the first day of life.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 60 infants with gestational age between 23 and 32 weeks, without malformations. Infants were continuously monitored by amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram on the first day of life, for at least 3h.

Neonatal procedural pain can be assessed by computer software that has good sensitivity and specificity to detect facial movements.

Aim: The difficulty in assessing pain during the neonatal period is one of the main obstacles for appropriate analgesia in intensive care units. The aim of this study was to develop and validate computer software to monitor neonatal facial movements of pain in real time.

Methods: The software was developed in the Delphi integrated development environment and provides real-time image analysis during monitoring, based on image recognition of pain-related facial actions.

Newborns with congenital heart diseases: epidemiological data from a single reference center in Brazil.

Objective: to describe the epidemiological data of the population born with the diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD); to compare diagnoses made using fetal echocardiography with the findings from postnatal echocardiography or anatomopathological examination of the heart; and to evaluate mortality among newborns that underwent surgical treatment.

Methods: this was a cohort study with information gathered from the medical records of the pregnant women and their newborns diagnosed with CHD during the fetal or postnatal periods, between January 2008 and December 2012. Means, standard deviations and maximum and minimum values were calculated for the quantitative variables.

Assessment of fetal lung maturity by ultrasound: objective study using gray-scale histogram.

Objective: To evaluate lung maturity using ultrasound (US), comparing the subjective and gray-scale histogram (GSH) techniques.

Methods: A total of 77 single pregnancies were evaluated and divided into the following two groups: 11 women of gestational age 28 to 35 + 6 weeks and 66 women ≥ 36 weeks. The women underwent to emergency or planned cesarean section, according to fetal-maternal indications.

Prenatal detection of congenital heart diseases: one-year survey performing a screening protocol in a single reference center in Brazil.

Objective. To describe the experience of a tertiary center in Brazil to which patients are referred whose fetuses are at increased risk for congenital heart diseases (CHDs). Methods.