Ankyloglossia in newborns: incidence and breastfeeding follow-up at 1 and 6 months.

BACKGROUND: Ankyloglossia is an anatomical variation of the lingual frenulum that negatively interferes with the functionality of the tongue. This condition can affect breastfeeding negatively. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of ankyloglossia among healthy babies born in Siena Hospital and the correlation between ankyloglossia and breastfeeding difficulties. METHODS: We performed an observational prospective study conducted on healthy and breastfed newborns born in Siena Hospital in the period between January and June 2022. The evaluation of lingual frenulum in the first few days of life was performed by Martinelli's Lingual Frenulum Protocol with scores for Infants (MLFPI), while the clinical assessment of breastfeeding initiation was performed by the Breastfeeding Observation and Evaluation Form according to WHO-UNICEF guidelines. We also compared the reliability in predicting breastfeeding of a tool that measured the features of the tongue frenulum: the Bristol Tongue Assessment Tool (BTT). Breastfeeding at one and six months of babies' age was assessed by telephone interview, and information among children's nutrition, weight growth and difficulties found in breastfeeding was also collected. This study was approved by the Pediatric Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials of the Tuscany Region. RESULTS: One hundred and ninety infants were included in the study; 21 (11.05%) had a MLFPI score ≥13. Data at one month of age showed a statistically higher MLFPI score (P value <0.001) in babies with breastfeeding difficulties (median score 13.0, IQR 5.5-14), than in those without (median score 5.0, IQR 2.0-7.5). Data at 6 months of age showed a similar difference in babies with and without breastfeeding difficulties (median 12.0, IQR 4.0-14.0 vs. 5.0, IQR 2.0-8.0 respectively). A MLFPI score ≥13 is positively associated with breastfeeding difficulties at 1 and 6 months. Also, the BTT was positively a risk factor for problems in breastfeeding at 1 and 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: A high MLFPI score is a risk factor of breastfeeding difficulties. In these cases, a referral to experienced personnel is advisable: they can provide the emotional and professional support to the mother-child dyad, and/or refer for surgical evaluation and frenotomy. In our cohort, the usefulness of either MLFPI score or BTT was evident in predicting breastfeeding difficulties; the rate of surgical removal of the frenulum was nonetheless low.

Values of PCT in neonates.

BACKGROUND: Procalciton (PCT) is a precursor polypeptide of the hormone calcitonin, produced in C cells of the thyroid. It has been demonstrated that microbial toxins and proinflammatory mediators can cause the release of PCT from tissues and cells in the body. PCT thus has become an important marker in the diagnosis of infection. METHODS: In this retrospective study we analyzed blood samples performed for clinical purposes from the newborns present in our hospital in the year 2019. We developed a database of 1356 PCT values obtained from 224 infants at risk for neonatal infection; we selected those PCT values obtained within 24 hours from a blood sampling for blood culture. RESULTS: Babies with positive blood culture had PCT values more elevated than those with negative blood culture (17.061 ng/mL [C.I. 10.8-23.2] vs. 4.6 ng/mL [C.I. 2.6-6.6]). No statistically significant difference was found between babies with negative blood culture born before or after 37 weeks of gestation. CONCLUSIONS: This paper gives useful data of PCT values in non-infective babies. It is worth to show that the normality values should not be confused with those of older children or adults. Moreover, it shows the reliability of PCT as an infection index.

Neonatal Infant Pain Scale in assessing pain and pain relief for newborn male circumcision.

Circumcision-partial or total removal of the penile prepuce-requires cutting nerve-laden, sensitive genital tissue and is therefore liable to be painful. The aim of this review is to evaluate the evidence concerning pain felt by newborns during circumcision and to determine whether current analgesic methods can eliminate such pain. I performed a search in medical databases, selecting the trials published in the last 20 years that assessed pain in neonatal circumcision. Twenty-three trials have been retrieved. To get reliable findings, those trials that used validated pain scales were selected; then it was investigated which trials had comparable data for using the same pain scale. The only pain scale that was used in more than two trials was the modified Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (mNIPS) that ranges 0-6. The results of these trials show that none of the analgesic strategies used obtained the absence of pain. Some differences between circumcision techniques can be noticed, but most assessments exceed the score of 3, chosen as the clinically significant pain.

Normal values of creatine kinase and of MB-creatine kinase at birth in healthy babies.

BACKGROUND: Today, few studies have been accomplished in order to determine serum creatine kinase (CK) activity in newborns by considering small groups of babies and without taking into account gestational age (GA) differences. Some authors have demonstrated that neonatal CK activity value at birth is higher than the normal range of CK activity considering for adults or older children. The objective of this study is to assess normal values of CK and MB-CK in neonatal blood, according to babies' GA. METHODS: We retrieved the clinical files of 140 babies admitted into Siena Hospital NICU in a 2-years period, when CK was assessed routinely to all babies at birth. We selected files from 114 newborns and we divided the cohort into group A (non-stressed; N.=41) and group B (stressed; N.=73) on the basis of Apgar Score and signs of neurological lesions. We compared CK and MB-CK values in the two groups according to GA. RESULTS: Mean CK value of the 41 non-stressed babies' samples: 413 IU/L (232 SD). CK significantly increases with GA. No differences are present in total CK activity between stressed vs. non-stressed babies; but a significant difference appears in these two groups for MB-CK (mean values: 456 vs. 175 IU/L). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that compares CK and MB-CK values at birth according to the GA of the babies. CK values increase with GA, and stressed babies have higher MB-CK values than the non-stressed babies. These reference values are important for clinical practice.

Consents or waivers of responsibility? Parents' information in NICU.

BACKGROUND: Informing the patient is a base of modern medicine; nonetheless, a great discrepancy exists between hospitals on the way this information should be administered. This is particularly important when the patient are babies: the information should be given to their parents who should approve or disapprove the treatment. Aim of this study is to assess the adequacy of the information administered to the parents of babies admitted into the Neonatal Intensive Care Units. METHODS: We analyzed the consent forms of center-north Italy NICUs. To this aim, we assessed if the forms had acceptable length and other features; we then asked some volunteers to simulate an information process and to score the forms for their easiness, comprehensibility and explicability to others. RESULTS: Twenty-one NICUs accepted to participate. Only 7 out of 21 had an adequate information form; the other 14 could be described as "waiver of responsibility" (WOR), because they were too prolix and contained too many hypothetical procedures. The overall level of easiness, comprehensibility and explicability to others was suboptimal, being lower in those forms we defined WOR. CONCLUSIONS: The results are far to be optimal. More care should be devoted to the process of informing parents at the admission into the NICU: an information overload should be avoided and information should be tailored on the baby's state. Further analysis should be devoted to whether the use of WOR is routine in other countries.

Verbal Communication with the Patient Is Not Enough: The Six Languages of the Sick.

Evidence shows that verbal communication is just one of the ways patients indicate their wishes. For a sufficiently careful communication, we should also grasp other five unusual though evident languages: (a) body language, (b) the way patients manage their environment, (c) unconscious language, (d) lab-evidenced language, and (e) the way they master technology. So, we have six languages that should be intertwined to understand the real language of the sick. Grasping these languages helps health professionals frame the patient's mood, their level of suffering or mental growth, and understand what words alone cannot express. Words cannot express completely what a patient senses: for subjection, shyness, because some patients are still non-verbal or because verbal communication is just a useful way of freezing concept but has not the same fluidity and liberty of the other above-described languages. It is mandatory for caregivers to wonder how many of these languages they are actually decrypting during an interview with the patient. On the other hand, caregivers unconsciously communicate much through two unexpected languages: the architectural language and the language of medical procedures. The way they welcome or obstruct the patient, their hesitations across a treatment, or in showing a serene collegiality are forms of subtle communication. A paradigmatic scenario where all these languages should be implemented is the "informed consent" process, which should be turned into a "shared therapeutic pathway", summing up all the communicative modes illustrated in the text.

What is the definition of acute episodic and chronic pain in critically ill neonates and infants? A global, four-stage consensus and validation study.

OBJECTIVES: To define and validate types of pain in critically ill neonates and infants by researchers and clinicians working in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and high dependency unit (HDU). DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive mixed-methods design. PROCEDURE/S: Each stage of the study was built on and confirmed the previous stages. Stage 1 was an expert panel to develop definitions; stage 2 was a different expert panel made up of neonatal clinicians to propose clinical characteristics associated with the definitions from stage 1; stage 3 was a focus group of neonatal clinicians to provide clinical case scenarios associated with each definition and clinical characteristics; and stage 4 was a survey administered to neonatal clinicians internationally to test the validity of the definitions using the clinical case scenarios. RESULTS: In stage 1, the panel (n=10) developed consensus definitions for acute episodic pain and chronic pain in neonates and infants. In stage 2, a panel (n=8) established clinical characteristics that may be associated with each definition. In stage 3, a focus group (n=11) created clinical case scenarios of neonates and infants with acute episodic pain, chronic pain and no pain using the definitions and clinical characteristics. In stage 4, the survey (n=182) revealed that the definitions allowed an excellent level of discrimination between case scenarios that described neonates and infants with acute episodic pain and chronic pain (area under the receiver operating characteristic=0.87 and 0.89, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This four-stage study enabled the development of consensus-based and clinically valid definitions of acute episodic pain and chronic pain. There is a need to define and validate other pain types to inform a taxonomy of pain experienced by neonates and infants in the NICU and HDU.

Management of pain in newborn circumcision: a systematic review.

Male circumcision (MC) is one of the most common surgical procedures performed on neonates. In the last decades, there have been consistent advances in the understanding of pain mechanisms in newborns, and analgesia has become a fundamental part of neonatal care. MC is still often performed with inappropriate analgesic methods, and there is still great variability among the various centers about surgical and anesthethic techniques to do it. The purpose of this review is to summarize the findings in the literature about pain management and analgesia during newborn MC. We performed a systematic review of neonatal MC studies published in the last 20 years. The most effective technique appeared to be the combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods of analgesia.Conclusion: Combining local anesthesia with non-pharmacological analgesic strategies appears to be effective preventing procedural pain during MC. However, a standardized protocol for analgesia during MC is yet to be determined. Sensorial saturation appeared to help when used in conjunction with the local anesthesia techniques. What is Known: • Male circumcision is a painful procedure and it is frequently performed with inappropriate analgesic methods. • A gold standard practice in analgesia during male circumcision is still lacking and there is a great variability in the modus operandi between centers. What is New: • The combination of RB + EMLA + sucrose appears to be an analgesic strategy superior to other approaches. • We advocate for the integration of sensorial saturation during male circumcision in order to improve the efficacy of current analgesic practices.

Analgesia for fetal pain during prenatal surgery: 10 years of progress.

Some doubts on the necessity and safety of providing analgesia to the fetus during prenatal surgery were raised 10 years ago. They were related to four matters: fetal sleep due to neuroinhibitors in fetal blood, the immaturity of the cerebral cortex, safety, and the need for fetal direct analgesia. These objections now seem obsolete. This review shows that neuroinhibitors give fetuses at most some transient sedation, but not a complete analgesia, that the cerebral cortex is not indispensable to feel pain, when subcortical structures for pain perception are present, and that maternal anesthesia seems not sufficient to anesthetize the fetus. Current drugs used for maternal analgesia pass through the placenta only partially so that they cannot guarantee a sufficient analgesia to the fetus. Extraction indices, that is, how much each analgesic drug crosses the placenta, are provided here. We here report safety guidelines for fetal direct analgesia. In conclusion, the human fetus can feel pain when it undergoes surgical interventions and direct analgesia must be provided to it. IMPACT: Fetal pain is evident in the second half of pregnancy. Progress in the physiology of fetal pain, which is reviewed in this report, supports the notion that the fetus reacts to painful interventions during fetal surgery. Evidence here reported shows that it is an error to believe that the fetus is in a continuous and unchanging state of sedation and analgesia. Data are given that disclose that drugs used for maternal analgesia cross the placenta only partially, so that they cannot guarantee a sufficient analgesia to the fetus. Safety guidelines are given for fetal direct analgesia.

Modified Sensory Stimulation Using Breastmilk for Reducing Pain Intensity in Neonates in Indonesia: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: Several studies have shown that oral sucrose reduces pain in newborns. However, sucrose has no efficacy in eliminating pain and long-term effects remain unclear. Breast milk may be useful as an alternative, safe sweet solution. Sensorial saturation (SS) is a multisensory analgesic non-pharmacological treatment, which includes touch and sounds as distractors. This study aimed to compare the analgesic effects of SS with sucrose (SSS), SS with breast milk (SSB), and oral sucrose alone (S24%) in neonates undergoing venipuncture. DESIGN AND METHODS: This was a randomized controlled trial conducted on 108 neonates who underwent venipuncture at neonatology wards. All babies were randomly assigned to one of three groups: two intervention groups and one control group. Pain response was assessed using the premature infant pain profile-revised (PIPP-R). Data analysis was conducted using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: SSB and SSS were more effective than S24% (p = 0.001). No difference was observed between SSB and SSS (p = 0.669). CONCLUSION: Multisensory stimulation is more effective in reducing pain than unimodal (oral sucrose) analgesia. Breast milk can be used as a sensory gustatory stimulus in multisensory stimulation to reduce pain intensity in neonates, and demonstrates a similar analgesic effect to sucrose. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The study findings suggest that neonatal nurses could use SSB for management of pain. This intervention could serve as an effective, inexpensive, and safe non-pharmacological analgesic. Additional testing of this intervention is warranted to support its use as an evidence-based pain reduction approach.

Nurses and Doctors Heroes? A Risky Myth of the COVID19 Era.

Recent newspapers reports have named health professionals as "heroes". This is surprising, because in the last few decades, doctors and nurses have been taken into account by mass media only to describe cases of misconduct or of violence. This change was due to the coronavirus pandemic scenario that has produced fear in the population and the need for an alleged "savior". This need for health professionals seen as heroes is also disclosed by the fact that even politicians have abdicated to their role in favor of the healthcare "experts" to whom important decisions on social life during this pandemic have been delegated, even those decisions that fall outside of the specific health field. This commentary is a claim to framing the job of caregivers in its correct role, neither angel nor devil, but allied to the suffering person, that the image of "heroes" risks to overshadow.

The Congress "Yes to Life": A Hand Offered in Dialogue.

The Congress "Yes to Life," devoted to the ethical problems in perinatology, has been an important carrefour for the intercultural dialogue on these themes. This paper describes the aim of the Congress and why it was proposed.

New insights into fetal pain.

Fetal pain is difficult to assess, because the main feature needed to spot pain, is the subject's capability of declaring it. Nonetheless, much can be affirmed about this issue. In this review we first report the epochs of the development of human nociceptive pathways; then we review since when they are functioning. We also review the latest data about the new topic of analgesia and prenatal surgery and about the scarce effect on fetal pain sentience of the natural sedatives fetuses produce. It appears that pain is a neuroadaptive phenomenon that emerges in the middle of pregnancy, at about 20-22 weeks of gestation, and becomes more and more evident for bystanders and significant for the fetus, throughout the rest of the pregnancy.

Electromagnetic fields in neonatal incubators: the reasons for an alert.

BACKGROUND: Neonatal incubators are important tools for sick newborns in the first few days of life. Nevertheless, their electric engine, often very close to the newborn's body, emits electromagnetic fields (EMF) to which newborns are exposed. Aim of this paper is to review the available literature on EMF exposure in incubators, and the effects of such exposures on newborns that have been investigated. METHODS: We carried out a systematic review of studies about EMF emissions produced by incubators, using Medline and Embase databases from 1993 to 2017. RESULTS: We retrieved 15 papers that described the EMF exposure in incubators and their biological effects on babies. EMF levels in incubators appear to be between 2 and 100 mG, depending on the distance of the mattress from the electric engine. In some cases, they exceed this range. These values interfere with melatonin production or with vagal tone. Even caregivers are exposed to high EMF, above 200 mG, when working at close contact with the incubators. CONCLUSION: EMF have been described as potentially hazardous for human health, and values reported in this review are an alert to prevent babies' and caregivers' exposure when close to the incubators. A precautionary approach should be adopted in future incubator design, to prevent high exposures of newborns in incubators and of caregivers as well.