Gaston Arnolda

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy for Infants With Respiratory Distress in Non–Tertiary Care Centers: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE. Our objective was to determine whether continuous positive airway pressure therapy would safely reduce the need for up-transfer of infants with respiratory distress from nontertiary centers. METHODS. We randomly assigned 300 infants at >30 weeks of gestation with respiratory distress to receive either Hudson prong bubble continuous positive airway pressure therapy or headbox oxygen treatment (standard care). The primary end point was “up-transfer or treatment failure.” Secondary end points included death, length of nursery stay, time receiving oxygen therapy, cost of care, and other measures of morbidity. RESULTS. Of 151 infants who received continuous positive airway pressure therapy, 35 either were up-transferred or experienced treatment failure, as did 60 of the 149 infants given headbox oxygen treatment. There was no difference in the length of stay or the duration of oxygen treatment. For every 6 infants treated with continuous positive airway pressure therapy, there was an estimated cost saving of

Neonatal jaundice in low- and middle-income countries: lessons and future directions from the 2015 Don Ostrow Trieste Yellow Retreat

10000. Pneumothorax was identified for 14 infants in the continuous positive airway pressure group and 5 in the headbox group. There was no difference in any other measure of morbidity or death. CONCLUSIONS. Hudson prong bubble continuous positive airway pressure therapy reduces the need for up-transfer of infants with respiratory distress in nontertiary centers. There is a clinically relevant but not statistically significant increase in the risk of pneumothorax. There are significant benefits associated with continuous positive airway pressure use in larger nontertiary centers.

A critical review of health-related economic evaluations in Australia: implications for health policy

Severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, defined as total serum bilirubin (TSB) ≥20 mg/dl, is associated with a higher risk of permanent neurological sequelae and death. Jaundice can and should be promptly diagnosed and treated. Reliable methods for TSB assay are not always readily available, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, making the true incidence of severe neonatal jaundice (NNJ) difficult to estimate. To gather a more comprehensive picture, a symposium addressing NNJ worldwide was organized during the 2015 Don Ostrow Trieste Yellow Retreat. Data collected by several researchers in different regions of the world were presented and differences/similarities discussed. This report points out the need for: (1) a coordinated worldwide effort to define the burden and the causes of severe NNJ and its consequences; (2) aggressive educational programs for families and health personnel to facilitate timely care-seeking, and (3) accurate diagnostics and effective phototherapy.

Practice variation in initial management and transfer thresholds for infants with respiratory distress in Australian hospitals. Who should write the guidelines

In Australia, as in many other countries, economic evaluation is increasingly seen by health care policy makers as a useful aid to priority setting and resource allocation. In Australia, economic evaluation is now a requirement for new drugs to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which provides a government subsidy on the price of listed drugs for purchasers. Yet, despite recognition of the importance of economic evaluation by policy makers, there is a paucity of published evaluations in Australia. We reviewed all of the 33 health-related economic evaluations conducted in Australia and subsequently published since 1978. This study assesses how well informed decision makers might be if they used the results and conclusions of published economic evaluations as an aid to resource allocation. The review highlights several issues: (i) it is difficult to interpret the conclusions or assess the generalisability of individual papers without information on the context of the original study; (ii) the choice of comparator(s) was often unexplained and most papers did not employ marginal analysis; (iii) in the absence of marginal analysis, the comparability of cost-effectiveness ratios in league tables must be questioned as well as the completeness (were all the relevant alternatives included?) of studies; and (iv) the quality of effectiveness evidence varies enormously, with some authors content to use the best available evidence (even if it is of poor quality). The development of standards for economic evaluation methods might ensure a more consistent and scientific approach to evaluative work, but they cannot guarantee it. A more concerted effort to disseminate the principles and methods of economic evaluation to policy makers and non-economist evaluators might be a more important precursor to improving the credibility and usefulness of economic evaluations in priority setting.

CPAP use in babies with respiratory distress in Australian special care nurseries

Aim:  In Australian hospitals: (i) to identify current practices in the initial oxygen management of infants with respiratory distress; (ii) to identify factors important in deciding to transfer an infant; and (iii) to identify thresholds for transfer.

Quality of Health Care for Children in Australia, 2012-2013.

Aim:  This study sought to identify the number of special care nurseries (SCNs) already using CPAP in 2004, and the number considering its use in the following 2 years, and to describe the characteristics of those hospitals.

Neonatal resuscitation in Vietnam: a national survey of a middle-income country.

Importance The quality of routine care for children is rarely assessed, and then usually in single settings or for single clinical conditions. Objective To estimate the quality of health care for children in Australia in inpatient and ambulatory health care settings. Design, Setting, and Participants Multistage stratified sample with medical record review to assess adherence with quality indicators extracted from clinical practice guidelines for 17 common, high-burden clinical conditions (noncommunicable [n = 5], mental health [n = 4], acute infection [n = 7], and injury [n = 1]), such as asthma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, tonsillitis, and head injury. For these 17 conditions, 479 quality indicators were identified, with the number varying by condition, ranging from 9 for eczema to 54 for head injury. Four hundred medical records were targeted for sampling for each of 15 conditions while 267 records were targeted for anxiety and 133 for depression. Within each selected medical record, all visits for the 17 targeted conditions were identified, and separate quality assessments made for each. Care was evaluated for 6689 children 15 years of age and younger who had 15 240 visits to emergency departments, for inpatient admissions, or to pediatricians and general practitioners in selected urban and rural locations in 3 Australian states. These visits generated 160 202 quality indicator assessments. Exposures Quality indicators were identified through a systematic search of local and international guidelines. Individual indicators were extracted from guidelines and assessed using a 2-stage Delphi process. Main Outcomes and Measures Quality of care for each clinical condition and overall. Results Of 6689 children with surveyed medical records, 53.6% were aged 0 to 4 years and 55.5% were male. Adherence to quality of care indicators was estimated at 59.8% (95% CI, 57.5%-62.0%; n = 160 202) across the 17 conditions, ranging from a high of 88.8% (95% CI, 83.0%-93.1%; n = 2638) for autism to a low of 43.5% (95% CI, 36.8%-50.4%; n = 2354) for tonsillitis. The mean adherence by condition category was estimated as 60.5% (95% CI, 57.2%-63.8%; n = 41 265) for noncommunicable conditions (range, 52.8%-75.8%); 82.4% (95% CI, 79.0%-85.5%; n = 14 622) for mental health conditions (range, 71.5%-88.8%); 56.3% (95% CI, 53.2%-59.4%; n = 94 037) for acute infections (range, 43.5%-69.8%); and 78.3% (95% CI, 75.1%-81.2%; n = 10 278) for injury. Conclusions and Relevance Among a sample of children receiving care in Australia in 2012-2013, the overall prevalence of adherence to quality of care indicators for important conditions was not high. For many of these conditions, the quality of care may be inadequate.

Targeted oxygen therapy in special care nurseries: Is uniformity a good thing?

Interventions that improve neonatal resuscitation are critical if we are to reduce perinatal mortality. We evaluated the consistency of resuscitation practices, and adherence to the international guidelines for neonatal resuscitation, in a large representative sample of hospitals in Vietnam.

A comparison of the effectiveness of three LED phototherapy machines, single- and double-sided, for treating neonatal jaundice in a low resource setting

Aim:  There is wide variation in the commencement of inspired oxygen (FiO2) and the oxygen saturation (SpO2) targets set in special care nurseries (SCNs). Evidence supports minimising unnecessary oxygen exposure. Does the introduction of a protocol advocating the uniform approach of commencing FiO2 at 30% and targeting SpO2 of 94–96% for infants ≥33 weeks gestation with respiratory distress reduce oxygen exposure?

Assessing the quality of the management of tonsillitis among Australian children: a population-based sample survey

Introduction Neonatal jaundice is one of the most common reasons for hospital admission in low resource settings. Treatment is frequently inadequate as conventional phototherapy requires frequent bulb changes. LED phototherapy has comparable efficacy to conventional phototherapy, and the bulbs last over 40,000 hours. This observational study compares the effectiveness of three LED machines, two single-sided and one double-sided in routine use in Vietnam. Methods We included all infants weighting ≥1500g and with jaundice diagnosed visually or by Total Serum Bilirubin (TSB) measurement at The Da Nang Hospital for Women and Children (Da Nang, Vietnam). The primary endpoint was the average hourly change in TSB over the first six hours of treatment. The secondary endpoints were duration of treatment; average hourly change in TSB over treatment, and length of stay in the neonatal unit. Multivariable analysis and bootstrap methods was performed to compare outcomes, adjusting for potential confounders. Results All outcomes were comparable in the two single-sided machines. The double-sided machine showed 54% increase in the hourly speed of TSB reduction (1.3 μmol/L/hr, 95% CI 0.3–2.3), with a 45% increase in the speed of TSB reduction over the duration of treatment (0.9 μmol/L/hr, 95% CI 0.6–1.3). In addition, the double-sided machine was associated with 21% reduction in the duration of treatment (14 hours, 95% CI 5–22) and 16% reduction of length of stay (14 hours, 95% CI 3–25). Conclusion The results confirm and quantify the benefits of increasing surface-area exposure during phototherapy. Adjusted for multiple potential confounders, use of double-sided phototherapy can substantially increase the speed of TSB reduction, and substantially decrease the duration of treatment and length of stay in the NCU.