A strategy to reduce critical cardiorespiratory alarms due to intermittent enteral feeding of reterm neonates in intensive care

\u3cp\u3eBACKGROUND: Many preterm infants require enteral feeding as they cannot coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing. In enteral feeding, milk feeds are delivered through a small feeding tube passed via the nose or mouth into the stomach. Intermittent milk feeds may either be administered using a syringe to gently push milk into the infant's stomach (push feed) or milk can be poured into a syringe attached to the tube and allowed to drip in by gravity (gravity feed). This practice of enteral feeding is common in neonatal intensive care units. There is, however, no evidence in the literature to recommend the use of one method of feeding over the other.\u3c/p\u3e\u3cp\u3eOBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate which of the two methods of feeding is physiologically better tolerated by infants, as measured by the incidence of critical cardiorespiratory alarms during and immediately after feeding.\u3c/p\u3e\u3cp\u3eMETHODS: We conducted a prospectively designed observational study with records of all feeding episodes in infants of gestational age less than 30 weeks at birth and with a minimum enteral intake of 100 mL/kg/day. In total, 2140 enteral feeding episodes were noted from 25 infants over 308 infant-days with records for several characteristics of the infants (eg, gestational age), feeding (eg, the position of infants), and of nursing-care events before feeding (eg, diapering). Logistic regression with mixed effects was used to model cardiorespiratory alarms for the push and gravity methods of feeding.\u3c/p\u3e\u3cp\u3eRESULTS: After adjustments were made for all confounding variables, the position of infants was found to be statistically significant in changing the outcome of critical alarms for the two methods of feeding (P=.02). For infants in the lateral position, push feeds led to 40% more instances of one or more critical cardiorespiratory alarms in comparison with the gravity method. Both methods of feeding created a statistically comparable number of alarms for infants in the prone position.\u3c/p\u3e\u3cp\u3eCONCLUSIONS: This study provides objective data that may assist in optimizing enteral feeding protocols for premature infants. The incidence of critical cardiorespiratory alarms for infants in the lateral position can be lowered by the use of gravity instead of push feeding. No differences were observed between the two types of feeding when infants were in the prone position.\u3c/p\u3

Fixation using alternative implants for the treatment of hip fractures (FAITH): design and rationale for a multi-centre randomized trial comparing sliding hip screws and cancellous screws on revision surgery rates and quality of life in the treatment of femoral neck fractures

BACKGROUND: Hip fractures are a common type of fragility fracture that afflict 293,000 Americans (over 5,000 per week) and 35,000 Canadians (over 670 per week) annually. Despite the large population impact the optimal fixation technique for low energy femoral neck fractures remains controversial. The primary objective of the FAITH study is to assess the impact of cancellous screw fixation versus sliding hip screws on rates of revision surgery at 24 months in individuals with femoral neck fractures. The secondary objective is to determine the impact on health-related quality of life, functional outcomes, health state utilities, fracture healing, mortality and fracture-related adverse events. METHODS/DESIGN: FAITH is a multi-centre, multi-national randomized controlled trial utilizing minimization to determine patient allocation. Surgeons in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia will recruit a total of at least 1,000 patients with low-energy femoral neck fractures. Using central randomization, patients will be allocated to receive surgical treatment with cancellous screws or a sliding hip screw. Patient outcomes will be assessed at one week (baseline), 10 weeks, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months post initial fixation. We will independently adjudicate revision surgery and complications within 24 months of the initial fixation. Outcome analysis will be performed using a Cox proportional hazards model and likelihood ratio test. DISCUSSION: This study represents major international efforts to definitively resolve the treatment of low-energy femoral neck fractures. This trial will not only change current Orthopaedic practice, but will also set a benchmark for the conduct of future Orthopaedic trials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The FAITH trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier NCT00761813)