Published online February 1, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 2 February 2007, pp. 396-397 (doi:10.1542/peds.2006-3456)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Barrington, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Barrington, K.
Related Collections
Right arrow Heart & Blood Vessels

COMMENTARY

Time for Pressure Tactics

Keith Barrington, MBChB

Department of Pediatrics, McGill University, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal Quebec, Canada

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Therapies for hypotension in very preterm infants are among the most common interventions given to these fragile patients. The proportion of very low birth weight infants who receive potent and potentially toxic interventions varies dramatically from one NICU to another.1

A prospective cohort study of extremely low gestational age newborns (the ELGAN study), results of which are published in this issue of Pediatrics,2 shows even greater variation in interventions for hypotension than previously reported. The proportion of infants under 28 weeks' gestation who were treated ranged from 32% to 98%, and the proportion that received either hydrocortisone or vasopressor agents ranged from 8% to 86%. The investigators examined the reasons for these variations and were unable to show that hypotension was more frequent or severe in the high-intervention centers. Indeed, the only consistent factor associated with intervention was the NICU in which the infant . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Address correspondence to Keith Barrington, MBChB, McGill University, Department of Pediatrics, Room C7.68, Royal Victoria Hospital, 687 Pine Ave W, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1A1. E-mail: keith.barrington@mcgill.ca