Developing and running an adolescent inpatient ward.

Advocates of adolescent health have long argued for the development of dedicated inpatient units. In the UK, many recently built children's hospitals have included adolescent wards, with further wards actively planned for new builds. In Australia, adolescent wards have been established in all but one of the major children's hospitals and will be a feature of all three new children's hospitals currently being built (in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth).

Amniotic cavity cultures, blood cultures, and surface swabs in preterm infants--useful tools for the management of early-onset sepsis?

Aims: To evaluate the potential benefit of amniotic fluid and amniotic/placental membrane cultures for the management of early-onset sepsis in preterm infants.

Methods: The results of amniotic cavity cultures obtained during cesarean section and of peripheral blood cultures and surface swabs obtained from the preterm infant at the time of admission were analyzed with respect to the diagnosis of clinical sepsis in 221 preterm infants <34 weeks of gestation.

Results: 136 (61.

Pain and stress management in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit--a national survey in Austria.

Unlabelled: Neonates are sensitive to pain and vulnerable to both its short-term and long-term effects. Management of analgesia is thought to be hampered by lack of awareness that newborns are capable of experiencing pain and by fears about adverse effects associated with analgesics. The purpose of this study was to assess current medical practice in preventive analgesia and sedation in the neonate throughout Austria.

Microbial invasion of the amniotic cavity at birth is associated with adverse short-term outcome of preterm infants.

Aims: To determine the frequency and clinical significance of microbial invasion of the amniotic cavity at the time of delivery in preterm infants.

Methods: Prospective cohort study during June 2001 and January 2002. Preterm infants < 33 + 6 weeks of gestation who had amniotic fluid and placental tissue sampled for culture during cesarean section were included.

Serratia marcescens in the neonatal intensive care unit: re-emphasis of the potentially devastating sequelae.

Background: It is known that infections with Serratia marcescens can take a progressive course in preterm infants and that meningoencephalitis with this pathogen exhibits an extremely bad neurologic prognosis.

Methods And Results: We report on five cases of septicemia with Serratia marcescens in preterm infants during a nosocomial outbreak. Three patients developed meningoencephalitis with brain abscesses.