Short-term Music Therapy for Families With Preterm Infants: A Randomized Trial.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate short-term effects of music therapy (MT) for premature infants and their caregivers on mother-infant bonding, parental anxiety, and maternal depression. METHODS: Parallel, pragmatic, randomized controlled-trial conducted in 7 level III NICUs and 1 level IV NICU in 5 countries enrolling premature infants (<35 weeks gestational age at birth) and their parents. MT included 3 sessions per week with parent-led, infant-directed singing supported by a music therapist. Primary outcome was mother-infant bonding as measured by the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) at discharge from NICU. Secondary outcomes were parents' symptoms of anxiety measured by General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and maternal depression measured by Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). Group differences at the assessment timepoint of discharge from hospital were tested by linear mixed effect models (ANCOVA). RESULTS: From August 2018 to April 2020, 213 families were enrolled in the study, of whom 108 were randomly assigned to standard care and 105 to MT. Of the participants, 208 of 213 (98%) completed treatment and assessments. Participants in the MT group received a mean (SD) of 10 sessions (5.95), and 87 of 105 participants (83%) received the minimum of 6 sessions. The estimated group effect (95% confidence interval) for PBQ was -0.61 (-1.82 to 0.59). No significant differences between groups were found (P = .32). No significant effects for secondary outcomes or subgroups were found. CONCLUSIONS: Parent-led, infant-directed singing supported by a music therapist resulted in no significant differences between groups in mother-infant bonding, parental anxiety, or maternal depression at discharge.

Care practices and neonatal survival in 52 neonatal intensive care units in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, India: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The Indian government supports both public- and private-sector provision of hospital care for neonates: neonatal intensive care is offered in public facilities alongside a rising number of private-for-profit providers. However, there are few published reports about mortality levels and care practices in these facilities. We aimed to assess care practices, causes of admission, and outcomes from neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in public secondary and private tertiary hospitals and both public and private medical colleges enrolled in a quality improvement collaborative in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh-2 Indian states with a respective population of 35 and 50 million. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a cross-sectional study between 30 May and 26 August 2016 as part of a baseline evaluation in 52 consenting hospitals (26 public secondary hospitals, 5 public medical colleges, 15 private tertiary hospitals, and 6 private medical colleges) offering neonatal intensive care. We assessed the availability of staff and services, adherence to evidence-based practices at admission, and case fatality after admission to the NICU using a range of tools, including facility assessment, observations of admission, and abstraction of registers and telephone interviews after discharge. Our analysis is adjusted for clustering and weighted for caseload at the hospital level and presents findings stratified by type and ownership of hospitals. In total, the NICUs included just over 3,000 admissions per month. Staffing and infrastructure provision were largely according to government guidelines, except that only a mean of 1 but not the recommended 4 paediatricians were working in public secondary NICUs per 10 beds. On admission, all neonates admitted to private hospitals had auscultation (100%, 19 of 19 observations) but only 42% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25%-62%, p-value for difference is 0.361) in public secondary hospitals. The most common single cause of admission was preterm birth (25%) followed by jaundice (23%). Case-fatality rates at age 28 days after admission to a NICU were 4% (95% CI 2%-8%), 15% (9%-24%), 4% (2%-8%) and 2% (1%-5%) (Chi-squared p = 0.001) in public secondary hospitals, public medical colleges, private tertiary hospitals, and private medical colleges, respectively, according to facility registers. Case fatality according to postdischarge telephone interviews found rates of 12% (95% CI 7%-18%) for public secondary hospitals. Roughly 6% of admitted neonates were referred to another facility. Outcome data were missing for 27% and 8% of admissions to private tertiary hospitals and private medical colleges. Our study faced the limitation of missing data due to incomplete documentation. Further generalizability was limited due to the small sample size among private facilities. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest differences in quality of neonatal intensive care and 28-day survival between the different types of hospitals, although comparison of outcomes is complicated by differences in the case mix and referral practices between hospitals. Uniform reporting of outcomes and risk factors across the private and public sectors is required to assess the benefits for the population of mixed-care provision.

Changing trend of empirical antibiotic regimen: experience of two studies at different periods in a neonatal intensive care unit in Tehran, Iran.

Bacterial sepsis is one of the most common causes of mortality and morbidity in neonates. It has been recognized a gradual change in spectrum of organisms responsible for neonatal sepsis. In this study we have evaluated changing trend of incidence and antibiotic susceptibility in neonatal late - onset sepsis (LOS) in 2-periods. This study is based on results of blood culture in neonatal late-onset sepsis, in 2--periods study throughout 12 - years. Neonatal LOS was defined as clinical signs suggestive of infection with a positive blood culture (B/C) after 72 hrs of birth. During first study (period: 1990-1992), the most common bacteremia in LOS was staphylococcus aureus (staph aureus) (34%). Overall gram- negative bacteria (GNB) were the predominant organism (66%). It was shown that 60% of GNB were resisted to gentamicin and 3% to amikacin, while in case of gram-positive bacteria (GPB); about 95% were resisted to ampicillin and 28% to cephalothin. In the second study (period: 2004-2007), the vast majority (56.6%) of septic cases were caused by GNB. The most common cause of late- onset sepsis was klebsiela p. (31%). The GPB were resistant to cephalothin (90%). There has been a dramatic increase resistance to cephalothin and aminoglycosides and 3rd -generation cephalosporins. The combination of cephalothin plus amikacin in suspected LOS was no longer the effective therapeutic regimen in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Now, it seems the best choice for empiric antibiotic regimen in suspected LOS is the combination vancomycin plus amikacin. Constant surveillance is important to guide empirical antibiotic therapy and changes in trends.

Are neonatal intensive care resources located according to need? Regional variation in neonatologists, beds, and low birth weight newborns.

OBJECTIVE: Despite marked growth in neonatal intensive care during the past 30 years, it is not known if neonatologists and beds are preferentially located in regions with greater newborn risk. This study reports the relationship between regional measures of intensive care capacity and low birth weight infants using newly developed market-based regions of neonatal intensive care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional small-area analysis of 246 neonatal intensive care regions (NICRs). DATA SOURCES: 1996 American Medical Association and American Osteopathic Association masterfiles data of clinically active neonatologists; 1999 American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Perinatal Pediatrics survey of directors of neonatal intensive care units in the United States with 100% response rate; 1995 linked birth/death data. RESULTS: The number of total births per neonatologist across NICRs ranged from 390 to 8197 (median: 1722) and the number of total births per intensive care bed ranged from 72 to 1319 (median: 317). The associations between capacity measures and low birth weight rates across NICRs were statistically significant but negligible (R(2): 0.04 for neonatologists; 0.05 for beds). NICRs in the quintile with the greatest neonatologist capacity (average of only 863 births per neonatologist) had very low birth weight (VLBW) rates of 1.5% while those in the quintile of lowest neonatologist capacity (average of 3718 births per neonatologist) had VLBW rates of 1.3%; a similar lack of meaningful difference in VLBW rates was noted across quintiles of intensive care bed capacity. Including midlevel providers and intermediate care beds to the analyses did not alter the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal intensive care capacity is not preferentially located in regions with greater newborn need as measured by low birth weight rates. Whether greater capacity affords benefits to the newborns remains unknown.

Validation of a prognostic index in the critically ill newborn / Validación de un índice pronóstico en el recién nacido en estado crítico

Objetivo. Elaborar y validar un modelo pronóstico para evaluar a los pacientes que ingresan a una Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Neonatales (UCIN). Diseño. Casos y controles anidado en una cohorte. Lugar. UCIN de dos hospitales de tercer nivel y uno de segundo nivel. Pacientes. El estudio se realizó en dos fases (elaboración y validación del modelo respectivamente). En la primera fase se estudiaron 336 recién nacidos, 112 casos (pacientes fallecidos en la UCIN) y 224 controles (pacientes egresados vivos de la UCIN). En la segunda fase se incluyeron 300 pacientes, 100 casos y 200 controles. Mediciones. A cada uno de los pacientes que ingresaron al estudio se les determinaron los factores perinatales, clínicos, paraclínicos, y de co-morbilidad dentro de las primeras 12 horas de haber ingresado. Las variables que mostraron significancia estadística en el análisis bivariado se llevaron a un modelo de regresión logística. Resultados. Las variables que constituyeron el modelo pronóstico fueron edad gestacional x peso al nacer, paO2/FiO2 x saturación de O2, paro cardiaco, malformaciones congénitas mayores, septicemia y exceso de base. En la cohorte de elaboración la sensibilidad del modelo fue 70 por ciento y la especificidad 91 por ciento. En la cohorte de validación la sensibilidad fue 68 por ciento y la especificidad 92 por ciento, el valor predictivo positivo 80 por ciento, el valor predictivo negativo 85 por ciento y la frecuencia de clasificación correcta 84 por ciento. Conclusiones. El índice pronóstico de mortalidad neonatal desarrollado en este estudio demostró ser útil para la evaluación de la mortalidad hospitalaria en recién nacidos críticamente enfermos que ingresan a una UCIN.