Despite being a paediatric oncologist in my spare time, I am aware that brain tumours and neurosurgeons aren’t the only cause of acquired brain injury in childhood. And I know that the problems of ABI can be tremendous, from the horror of the initial injury and ICU, facing mortality and physical changes, through the unpredictable […]
Category: archimedes
Q: Should very prem babies be given CPR?
So it’s all ethical stuff at the moment. Does the following question reach a point where evidence no longer has a role? “A premature baby born at 24 weeks gestational age is admitted to the neonatal unit having been born apnoeic, floppy, blue and without a heart rate. After cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with adrenaline in […]
Average is a human rights abuse
This article in the Journal of Medical Ethics was directed at Archi from the Editor of E&P, and has got me all thoughtful about how a simple understanding of statistics is essential to everyone, even those working with the judiciary. The team writing this study reviewed the decisions of forensic physicians who were determining if […]
Q: Echogenic bowels and new babies
It was a vogue around the start of regular antenatal ultrasound scanning to note everything, associate wildly and some up with ‘antenatal markers of disease’, as I recollect. Some of these things turned out to be quite useful (nose bones, for instance, or their absence) and others still confuse me … like the ‘echogenic focus […]
Q: Spandex on prescription?
Fast drying, figure hugging and a joy to not iron, lycra (R) has revolutionised my laundry life. There are potentially even greater benefits though, with the use of lycra suits being promoted for children with cerebral palsies. […]
Tweets. EBM<=140
Twitter is a service that spreads news quickly. @archiadc has a challenge: to define key EBM terms in 140 characters or less. Can you help? […]
Q: Glycerine to prevent neonatal feed intolerance?
Now, I am sadly passionate about constipation and the need to treat it effectively. Some would say this obsession is a bit too much to be healthy. But even I would only go so far as to say that effective evacuation only makes you feel better, rather than make a huge difference to whether you […]
Q: Caffeine and prematurity
Now, it’s been a while since I scared myself by visiting a NICU, but I do recall the liberal use of caffeine by the resident medical and nursing staff, both for themselves and their tiny patients. There have been may things said about the delightful methylxanthine (including this, this and this) but did you ever […]
Trials are not needed
Sometimes, EBM is accused of being slavishly devoted to the Randomised Controlled Trial. This is clearly garbage if you look to answer a question outside of therapeutics: see our Archi posts on diagnosis and prognostication, for example. But even within the setting of picking the right treatment for the patients you see, the RCT is […]
You can now follow us on twitter @archiadc
If you don’t understand what the title means, you may be delighted to follow on the links below and get all excited about the expanding world of communication where your phone, TV, computer, games console and camera blend into one. If you already understand it, you’re there. There’s a feed of little messages (tweets) started […]