May 2008

Spring Bulletin Online Now
The Spring edition of our Section Bulletin is online now, so visit the SECTION WEB SITE to read a great article on evidence-based guidelines for bronchiolitis, plus an update on section activities.

Open Forum Deadline Extended Till June 15
If you’ve attended an AARC Congress, you know the Open Forum is one of the highlights of the event. Nowhere else will you find as many reports of original research performed by your colleagues in respiratory care. Hopefully, we’ll have lots of presentations from section members this December – and now you have more time to submit your abstracts. The AARC has just extended the deadline from June 1 to June 15. GO TO EASY STREET TO SUBMIT ONLINE

Section Reaches Membership Milestone
The Neo-Peds Section has always been one of the biggest in the AARC — but we recently reached a major milestone that reinforces our strength within the organization. As of this Spring, the section had more than 2000 members. Section Chair Brian Walsh thanks everyone for their support — and encourages current members to keep recruiting their colleagues into the section. His goal for 2010 is to top the 3,500 member mark.

Four Factors Help Determine Outcomes for Extremely Premature Infants
Determining the course of care for extremely premature infants has been a challenge. Now researchers from the University of Texas Medical School have identified 4 factors that can help clinicians decide which infants are most likely to benefit from aggressive treatment. In a study conducted among 4,192 infants born between 22 and 25 weeks gestation and followed for up to 22 months, outcomes were better for girls, those with higher birth weights, those who were singleton births, and those whose mothers had received antenatal steroids. These factors were more effective in predicting survival and impairment at the follow up among infants in the study who underwent mechanical ventilation than gestational age alone. The study appeared in the April 17 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. READ ABSTRACT

Admission Day Crowding May Lead to Longer Stays for Respiratory Patients
Children who come to the hospital with respiratory illnesses on especially busy days may be subjected to a delay in care that leads to longer hospitalization, report Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania researchers publishing in the April issue of Pediatrics. They looked at data on 116,235 children hospitalized in Pennsylvania and New York over about a 2 year period in the late 1990s. When the admission day occupancy rate climbed from 60% to 100%, children with respiratory problems ended up, on average, staying in the hospital 0.25 days longer. Children with non-respiratory disorders did not have a change in length of stay. The results, report the authors, suggest “medical professionals, during times of increased workload, first focus their attention on more acutely ill children with a complicated course and thus delay treatment of children who have less complicated courses but require time-consuming management and treatment.” READ ABSTRACT

Policies on Pulse Oximeter Saturation Limits Reduce Nurse Variation
Researchers from Children’s Hospital in Boston find a hospital policy on pulse oximetry saturation limits can reduce the impact of nurse opinion on targeted limits and reduce nurse target limit variation in the NICU. But only up to a point. While nurses were more likely to adhere to the limits when a policy was in place, only 28% of nurses in NICUs with policies accurately identified the upper and lower limits of their NICU’s policy and also targeted these values in practice. The research was conducted among nurses in U.S. facilities with neonatal-perinatal fellowships in 2004. Surveys were returned by 2,805 nurses from 59 facilities. Among those facilities, 40 had a policy specifying a pulse oximeter saturation range for extremely premature infants. The study appears in this month’s Pediatrics. READ ABSTRACT

Study to Assess CPAP/Surfactant Therapy Strategy
A new study getting underway at the Medical College of Georgia and two other academic sites is looking at a novel way of delivering surfactant to premature infants. In the trial, researchers will compare outcomes among 30 infants who will receive surfactant via an endotracheal tube that is quickly removed, then be supported with CPAP, with 30 similar infants who will receive surfactant while undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation. The authors hope to find the CPAP method reduces the lung trauma often seen in infants undergoing invasive ventilation. The infants will be followed to 36 weeks gestational age. READ PRESS RELEASE