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Our Neonatal department is research active with a number of opportunities for families to get involved.

BASE

The BASE study is a study for babies who are born more than 9 weeks early who have a condition called metabolic acidosis. This means there is a build-up of acid in the blood.

Sodium bicarbonate is a drug that is believed to lower acid levels in the blood and help the working of the heart. However, there are also potential side-effects which may affect the blood flow to the brain and other organs in the body.

As sodium bicarbonate to treat metabolic acidosis has never been properly studied, some doctors choose to use it as a treatment, and some do not. BASE is hoping to find out if giving sodium bicarbonate impacts the short and long-term health of preterm babies, to help improve medical practice and treatment in the future.

NeoGASTRIC

The neoGASTRIC study is comparing two ways of caring for babies who are born more than 6 weeks early and having tube feeds (milk that is given via a tube into the baby’s stomach).

One way is to measure how much milk is left in the baby’s stomach before the next feed is given, and the other is to not measure the stomach contents before a tube feed. Both care practices already take place in neonatal units across the UK, but we do not know which one is better. neoGASTRIC is comparing both practices to find out which one is safer.

COMET

The COMET study is for babies diagnosed with mild hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) shortly after birth. HIE describes the way a baby behaves after a lack of oxygen and blood flow to the baby’s brain during birth.

Babies diagnosed with moderate or severe HIE routinely receive cooling therapy to minimise the risk of permanent brain damage. Cooling therapy involves carefully lowering a baby’s temperature from the normal 37⁰C to 33.5⁰C, for 3-4 days, and starts within six hours of birth.

Babies diagnosed with mild HIE do not routinely receive cooling therapy. However, 38% of these babies may have special education needs at school. COMET aims to identify if cooling therapy for babies with mild HIE improves their cognitive ability (thinking skills).

 

How to get involved

If you are interested in your baby participating in research and would like some more information about the studies we are supporting, please contact the Neonatal Research team at mtw-tr.neonatal-research@nhs.net or on 01892 638641.

Previous research

SurfON

The SurfON study is looking at the best way to care for babies born 2 – 6 weeks before their due date, who suffer with severe breathing problems. SurfON is exploring whether it’s more beneficial to the baby’s recovery to give a natural surfactant medication into the lungs early, when the baby first starts to have problems, or to wait and see if they will improve without it.

Thank you to the 14 babies and their families who took part in SurfON at MTW.

Outcome: The findings of this study are being analysed.

FEED1

Babies born early are currently fed small amounts of milk through a tube into their stomach, with additional nutrition through a drip into their veins, known as gradual milk feeds. Premature babies are fed like this because of concerns about a serious bowel disease called necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). Research suggests that for premature babies who aren’t too poorly, larger milk feeds can be given without increasing the risk of NEC and might also reduce the risk of severe infection. FEED1 aims to understand whether starting babies on ‘full’ rather than ‘gradual’ milk feeds will lead to babies going home from hospital earlier, and find out what impact it has on their later development.

Thank you to the 26 babies and their families who took part in the FEED1 study at MTW.

Outcome: The findings of this study are being analysed.

OPTIPREM

OPTIPREM explored the outcomes of babies born between 27+0 and 31+6 weeks of gestation at highly specialised neonatal intensive care units (NICU) versus less specialised neonatal intensive care units (LNU) to identify whether the birth setting offered survival and/or morbidity advantages.

Outcome: OPTIPREM found no effect of birth setting on neonatal or infant mortality on babies born between 27+0 and 31+6 weeks gestation.