Valuation of Life With Disability: An International Comparison Study in Vietnam, Peru, and Haiti.

The authors measured perceived quality of life for 4 disabilities among 450 adults in 3 resource-limited countries, measuring mean utilities using time trade-off, and surveying participants on 35 sociocultural characteristics to compare utilities for disabilities by country and examine associated sociocultural characteristics. Mean utilities were >0 for mild and moderate, but <0 for severe and profound. Utilities differed across countries ( = .

Valuation of Quality of Life in Pediatric Disability in a Developing Country.

This article assessed how Indian providers and mothers value quality of life in pediatric disabilities, hypothesizing lower values with increasing disability, lower values among providers than mothers, and lower values among mothers with versus mothers without a disabled child. We asked 175 participants: "If born tomorrow, how many years of a disabled life ( y) would you trade to avoid life-long disability" for 4 hypothetical disabilities, calculating "utility" scores as: (life span - y) / life span, where death = 0 and full life without disability = 1. Providers' utilities were 0.

Maternal or neonatal infection: association with neonatal encephalopathy outcomes.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/pr.2014.

Antenatal Exposure to Magnesium Sulfate Is Associated with Reduced Cerebellar Hemorrhage in Preterm Newborns.

Objective: To determine the association of antenatal magnesium sulfate with cerebellar hemorrhage in a prospective cohort of premature newborns evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Study Design: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline characteristics from a prospective cohort of preterm newborns (<33 weeks gestation) evaluated with 3T-MRI shortly after birth. Exclusion criteria were clinical evidence of a congenital syndrome, congenital infection, or clinical status too unstable for transport to MRI.

Care practices and traditional beliefs related to neonatal jaundice in northern Vietnam: a population-based, cross-sectional descriptive study.

Background: The National Hospital of Pediatrics in Vietnam performed >200 exchange transfusions annually (2006-08), often on infants presenting encephalopathic from lower-level hospitals. As factors delaying care-seeking are not known, we sought to study care practices and traditional beliefs relating to neonatal jaundice in northern Vietnam.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional, population-based, descriptive study from November 2008 through February 2010.

Maternal or neonatal infection: association with neonatal encephalopathy outcomes.

Background: Perinatal infection may potentiate brain injury among children born preterm. The objective of this study was to examine whether maternal and/or neonatal infection are associated with adverse outcomes among term neonates with encephalopathy.

Methods: This study is a cohort study of 258 term newborns with encephalopathy whose clinical records were examined for signs of maternal infection (chorioamnionitis) and infant infection (sepsis).

When life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn and the patient doesn't die.

One of the most difficult decisions that doctors and parents must make is the decision to withdraw life-sustaining treatment. Doctors find it easier to withdraw treatments in situations where withdrawal will be rapidly fatal rather than in situations in which treatment withdrawal will lead to a prolonged dying process. Mechanical ventilation is usually such a treatment.

Barriers to neonatal care in developing countries: parents' and providers' perceptions.

Aim: Hospital care and advanced medical technologies for sick neonates are increasingly available, but not always readily accessible, in many countries. We characterised parents' and providers' perceptions of barriers to neonatal care in developing countries.

Methods: We interviewed parents whose infant was hospitalised within the first month of life in Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam, asking about perceived barriers to obtaining newborn care.

Resuscitation of likely nonviable infants: a cost-utility analysis after the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of universal vs selective resuscitation on maternal utilities, perinatal costs, and outcomes of preterm delivery and termination of pregnancy at 20-23 weeks 6 days' gestation.

Study Design: We used studies on medical practices, prematurity outcomes, costs, and maternal utilities to construct decision-analytic models for a cohort of annual US deliveries after preterm delivery or induced termination. Outcome measures were (1) the numbers of infants who survived intact or with mild, moderate, or severe sequelae; (2) maternal quality-adjusted life years (QALYs); and (3) incremental cost-effectiveness ratios.

Fetal pain: a systematic multidisciplinary review of the evidence.

Context: Proposed federal legislation would require physicians to inform women seeking abortions at 20 or more weeks after fertilization that the fetus feels pain and to offer anesthesia administered directly to the fetus. This article examines whether a fetus feels pain and if so, whether safe and effective techniques exist for providing direct fetal anesthesia or analgesia in the context of therapeutic procedures or abortion.

Evidence Acquisition: Systematic search of PubMed for English-language articles focusing on human studies related to fetal pain, anesthesia, and analgesia.