Clinics In Perinatology Perinatal Brain Injury

The 16 articles in this issue draw on the expertise of internationally recognized experts who have collectively provided cross-cutting reviews with a broad perspective on the current state of the field. The authors have provided succinct, up-to-date clinical perspectives and highlight current controversies and future challenges. As a result, this issue is a cutting-edge compendium of this complex and fast-moving field. Throughout the issue, the reader is encouraged to acquire a more comprehensive perspective by drawing connections between earlier and later articles that are thematically grouped around issues dealing with pathogenesis, diagnosis, and therapy. This issue underscores the vital importance of continued support to encourage and nurture collaboration among clinicians and scientists.

The Guest Editors have assembled top experts to provide the most current and clinically relevant articles devoted to Birth Asyphyxia. Articles in this issue are devoted to: Neonatal Transition After Birth; Pathophysiology of Birth Asphyxia; Perinatal Asphyxia from the Obstetrical Standpoint: Diagnosis and Interventions; Stillbirths: U.S. and Global Perspectives; Novel Approaches to Resuscitation and the Impact on Birth Asphyxia; Multiorgan Dysfunction and its Management After Birth Asphyxia; Neonatal Encephalopathy and Update on Therapeutic Hypothermia and Other Novel Therapeutics; Biomarkers in Neonatal Encephalopathy; Imaging and Other Diagnostics in Neonatal Encephalopathy; Asphyxia in the Premature Infant; The role of the NeoNeuro Unit for Birth Asphyxia; Long-term Cognitive Outcomes of Birth Asphyxia and the Contribution of Identified Perinatal Asphyxia to Cerebral Palsy; Global Burden, Epidemiologic Trends, and Prevention of Intrapartum Related Deaths in Low-resource Settings; and Neonatal Resuscitation in Low-resource Settings.

In consultation with Consulting Editor, Dr. Lucky Jain, Drs. Jonathan M. Davis and Errol R. Norwitz have put together a state-of the-art issue of the Clinics in Perinatology devoted to Perinatal Pharmacology. Clinical review articles are specifically devoted to the following: Drugs for the prevention and treatment of preterm labor; Drugs for the prevention and treatment of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy; Drugs to promote neuroprotection; Medications that cause fetal anomalies and possible prevention strategies; Safety and efficacy of psychotropic medications during pregnancy; Treatment of viral infections during pregnancy (HIV, herpes, CMV, hepatitis C); Drugs to control diabetes during pregnancy; Cardiotonic drugs; Drugs to treat coagulation disorders in the newborn; Drugs for the prevention and treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia; Drugs for the prevention and treatment of neonatal brain injury; Drugs for the prevention and treatment of sepsis in the newborn; Analgesia, opioids and other drug use during pregnancy and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome; Medications and breast feeding; Principles of pharmacokinetics in the pregnant woman and fetus; and Challenges in designing clinical trials to test new drugs in the pregnant woman and fetus. Readers will come away with the latest information on therapeutics as they seek to utilize evidence-based recommendations to improve patient outcomes.

Authoritative, practical clinical text giving clear management advice on diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of all fetal and neonatal brain injuries.

This issue of Clinics in Perinatology devoted to Neuroprotection in the Newborn examines the physiology of brain injury, detection of brain injury, protection and treatment of brain injury: hypothermia, and pharmacologic methods of neuroprotection. Drs. Alan Spitzer and Robert White have assembled a team of authoritative authors to pen articles on Protection of cerebral perfusion and oxygenation during the first few days of life in high-risk preterm infants, Cytokines and perinatal brain injury, Use of aEEG for assessing neonatal neurological injury, Anatomic changes and imaging in assessing brain injury, Nutritional/metabolic brain injury during the neonatal period, Brain cooling for neuroprotection - the pros and cons, Brain cooling for the preterm infant, Supportive care for infants during brain cooling, Technical aspects of starting a cooling program, Prevention of IVH in the preterm infant, iNO and neuroprotection, and Neuroprotection during heart surgery in infants.

Recent advances in neonatal hematology, largely made by the authors of these chapters, are likely to generate wide spread and long-term improvements in outcomes, as well as reductions in costs of care. Publication of these advances in a single volume will facilitate dissemination of these techniques and practices. The advances include neuroprotection from erythropoietic stimulators, improved guidelines for platelet transfusions, evidence-based guidelines for FFP administration, improved diagnostic methods for genetic causes of severe neonatal jaundice, more accurate definitions of hematological perturbations in necrotizing enterocolitis and sepsis, and reduction in transfusions and in IVH rates by cord milking/delayed clamping.

This book focuses on traumatic birth injuries, predominantly of the skull and brain, as well as hemorrhagic and ischemic disorders of cerebral circulation in fetuses and newborns, providing information on each condition’s classification, incidence, etiology and pathogenesis, pathomorphology, clinic, diagnostics, prognosis, and complications. It discusses the configuration (molding) of the head, venous congestion, displacements of cranial bones, ruptures of the cerebellar tentorium during labor, and the compression of the skull and brain damage caused by obstetric operations and asynclitic insertion of the head, while also describing the importance of the periosteal stagnation of the skull to assess the delivery and explanation of tentorium tears. Intracranial hemorrhages are considered in detail, taking into account the role of the traumatic factor in their occurrence and hypoxic-ischemic brain lesions (periventricular leukomalacia, selective neuronal necrosis, multicystic encephalomalacia, etc.). Lastly, it offers the world’s first explanation of why tentorium tears occur most frequently in the left half, providing an original classification of damaged tentoria, subarachnoid and intraventricular hemorrhages, and the degree of configuration of the head in childbirth. Given the depth and breadth of its coverage, the book offers an essential resource for neonatologists, obstetricians-gynecologists, perinatologists, pediatric neurologists, pathologists, pediatricians, forensic experts and neuroimaging professionals.