Design and rationale for an empirical investigation of the resource use and costs of investigator-initiated randomized trials in Switzerland, the UK, and Germany.

Background: Conducting high-quality randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is challenging, time consuming, and resource intense. Academic investigators usually depend on scarce financial resources; however, current literature lacks systematically collected empirical data on the detailed resource use and costs of investigator-initiated RCTs.

Methods: The aim of this study is to generate a database of detailed empirical resource use and cost data from 100 investigator-initiated RCTs in Switzerland, Germany, and the UK.

Clinical Presentation of Enterovirus D68 in a Swiss Pediatric University Center.

Background: Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is responsible for millions of infections. In the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of children requiring hospital or critical care admission due to severe respiratory illness. Nevertheless, the epidemiological and clinical importance of EV-D68 infections remains unclear.

Is crystalloid co-loading necessary to prevent spinal hypotension during elective cesarean delivery? A randomized double-blind trial.

Background: Hypotension is common during spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery. Preventive strategies include fluid loading and phenylephrine. We hypothesized that if prophylactic phenylephrine infusion is used, omission of fluid loading would be non-inferior to fluid co-loading in maintaining cardiac output.