Risk adapted transmission prophylaxis to prevent vertical HIV-1 transmission: effectiveness and safety of an abbreviated regimen of postnatal oral zidovudine.

Background: Antiretroviral drugs including zidovudine (ZDV) are effective in reducing HIV mother to child transmission (MTCT), however safety concern remains. The optimal duration of postnatal ZDV has not been established in clinical studies and there is a lack of consensus regarding optimal management. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness and safety of a risk adapted two week course of oral postnatal ZDV as part of a combined intervention to reduce MTCT.

Effect of the introduction of diagnosis related group systems on the distribution of admission weights in very low birthweight infants.

Background: Admission weight to neonatal intensive care units is used in several diagnosis related group (DRG) systems to assess reimbursement by health insurance programs for premature infants. Modifications of admission weights could significantly affect reimbursement in either direction.

Objective: Whether the introduction of the German DRG system in 2004 influenced the distribution of admission weights of premature infants was investigated.

Perinatal hemorrhagic shock after fetal scalp blood sampling.

Background: Fetal scalp blood sampling is commonly used for fetal monitoring during labor to identify intrapartum fetal hypoxia.

Case: A male term neonate was monitored by fetal scalp blood sampling because of abnormal cardiotocographic recordings. After emergency cesarean delivery, the newborn presented with severe hemorrhagic shock as a result of fetal anemia from the scalp blood sampling.

Severe hypernatremia in an extremely low birth weight infant with subsequent normal neurological development.

Severe preterm hypernatremia is a life-threatening electrolyte disorder which mainly causes neurological complications such as brain edema, intracranial hemorrhages, hemorrhagic infarctions and thromboses. We report the case of an extremely low birth weight infant (520 g, 24+6 weeks of gestation) with severe hypernatremia of 199 mmol/l due to a failure in the preparation of an infusion on the 7th day of life. The infant subsequently showed no signs of central nervous system complications and no neurological symptoms due to this mishap so far.

Correlation between severity of disease and reimbursement of costs in neonatal and paediatric intensive care patients.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between neonatal, paediatric and adult disease severity scores and reimbursement by health insurances.

Methods: The setting was a university hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). We performed a prospective study of all patients admitted over the 3-month study period.