The community use of rescue medication for prolonged epileptic seizures in children.

Objectives: The objectives for this study were to determine the prevalence of use, safety and efficacy of different preparations of rescue medication used for prolonged seizures in children in the community and to use the information gained to inform good practice within the network.

Methods: For all children in the EPIC area who had been prescribed epilepsy rescue medication for use in the community a questionnaire was completed by the clinician for each child relating to rescue medication prescribed, the epilepsy syndrome and seizure type. A questionnaire was also completed by the carers about their experience of the use of rescue medication in their child.

Portfolio of health advice for young people with disabilities transferring to adult care.

Background: The transition from paediatric to adult services for young people with complex disabilities is fraught with anxieties for families. To facilitate the transition process a portfolio comprising reports from parents, paediatrician and therapists was collected and given to the young person and family on leaving school.

Aim: To evaluate the young people and their parents' views of the usefulness of portfolios in providing comprehensive picture of their health needs.

Assessment of health status at two years of very low birthweight infants--clinical governance.

Aims to establish a mechanism to determine prospectively the health status at two years of babies who weighed less than 1.5 kg at birth, born and receiving neonatal intensive care in North Wales. Maternal and neonatal data on all babies discharged from each of the three units in North Wales meeting this criteria were collated by the study coordinator.

Maturation of the neonatal somatosensory evoked response in preterm infants.

A group of 102 neurologically normal neonates with gestations between 26 and 40 weeks, without abnormality on cranial ultrasound, underwent evoked response testing. Satisfactory results were obtained for 90 per cent of the infants. Normal ranges with 95 per cent tolerance limits for the short-latency N1 component of the response were obtained at postmenstrual ages between 29 weeks and term.

Short-latency cortical somatosensory evoked responses of preterm infants with ultrasound abnormality of the brain.

Somatosensory evoked response (SER) testing was carried out on 30 neonates with abnormality of the brain diagnosed by ultrasound, and the results were compared with previously defined normal ranges. The N1 peak latencies of the cortical SER were significantly different from normal, but peripheral nerve conduction velocities were not. Early neurological follow-up of these infants suggests that the cortical SER shows good correlation with neurological and developmental outcome, and may provide useful additional diagnostic information to cranial ultrasound for these high-risk infants.