wodi

We use meropenem + vancomycin + metronidazol (our microbiologist would be happy with meropenem only), for two to three weeks depending on bell stage or on clinical improvement or on 'gut feeling'. How long do you treat for and for how long do you keep them NPO?

ever tried bilitool.org, thats based on the aap guidance. We use both, NICE for less than 35/40 and for newborns less than 16 h and bilitool.org (starts with 16 h of life) for all the others. No concerns with either charts/guidelines so far.

We frequently see mothers who are colonised with Ureaplasma and for that receive ABx with Erythromycin (with +/- success). Having a baby on the unit who was born preterm due to AIS caused by Ureaplasma (PCR confirmation) the old discussion about treatment of atypical bacterial infection in neonates was re-ingnited. Usually these infants receive a course of clarythromycin PO, however, the suspension causes frequent obstruction and thus requires replacement of the NGT. The data are still controversal about the requirement to treat these kind of infections. Therefore I would be interested in your practices, do you test, do you treat, if so, with what (macrolide ...) and how (po, iv) and for how long do you treat? Thanks!

We are currently reviewing our postnatal guidelines and audited whether applying the latest AAP guidelines about hypoglycaemia screening of newborns at-risk would be feasible for our postnatal ward. One significant finding was that the babies had to be pricked 6 times on average within 24 hours, only to get low blood glucose measurements in about 5-10% of asymptomatic childen. I would be interested in your protocols of screening newborns at-risk of hypoglycaemia (are they less invasive?).

In the German speaking countries the technique described in these articles has found widspread use: fn.bmj.com/content/early/2011/.../adc.2010.209098 www.thelancet.com/.../PIIS0140-6736(11)60986-0 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17359406

We need to purchase a new blood gas machine as the one we currently have in use (Radiometer Copenhagen) becomes more and more unreliable. Which machines do people use in their units and what advantages/disadvantages do this machines have? Thanks!