Randomized trial of alcohol versus triple dye for umbilical cord care.

Over a 4-month period, all infants admitted to the well-baby nursery were enrolled in a prospective study designed to compare cord separation times between infants treated with triple dye once, followed by daily alcohol application, to infants treated with daily alcohol application alone. Follow-up phone calls were done 7 days after discharge, with weekly calls until cord separation occurred. The objective was to determine whether the umbilical cord care regimen of triple dye followed by alcohol has an advantage over the alternative regimen of alcohol alone, with regard to cord separation, parenting, or healthcare caretaker preferences.

"Proactive" management of percutaneously inserted central catheters results in decreased incidence of infection in the ELBW population.

Objective: Extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants often acquire catheter-related infections (CRIs) when a percutaneously inserted central catheter (PICC) is used for parenteral nutrition or drug administration. Our objective was to compare the incidence of CRIs after we established a "PICC Maintenance Team" for the proactive management--compared to expectant management--of these lines.

Study Design: We did a prospective collection and analysis of catheter-related sepsis data over a 15-month period from February 1, 1998 through May 1, 1999.