Clinical Updates

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: Transforming Care for Newborns and Their Families
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome: Transforming Care for Newborns and Their Families 1024 633 Abbie Miller
Nurse with scrubs holding an infant

If there’s a success story to be told at this point in the history of the opioid crisis, it’s in the newborn intensive care unit. From changing attitudes to standardizing treatment, clinical care for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and their families is markedly different than it was 10 years ago.   CHANGING ATTITUDES…

Primary Care Provider Guide to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Follow Up
Primary Care Provider Guide to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Follow Up 150 150 Nationwide Children's

Pediatricians have a unique challenge when it comes to caring for the broad spectrum of needs associated with opioid-exposed infants. Some babies who were treated with pharmacological methods in a hospital will be discharged home still on neuro-active medications. Other babies did not receive a neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) diagnosis or specific treatment after birth…

Opening the Door to Adult Medicine
Opening the Door to Adult Medicine 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Care transition plans aren’t just for kids with congenital conditions anymore. Could your practice benefit from a proactive transition plan for all patients? In the shift from pediatric to adult care, young patients have the responsibility to adjust to a new life of self-management. But health care providers also play an important role in this…

Could Earlier Spirometry Get CF Inpatients Home Sooner?
Could Earlier Spirometry Get CF Inpatients Home Sooner? 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

A retrospective chart review suggests early spirometry is associated with shorter length of stay. As multicenter studies examine whether length of hospital stay and duration of treatment can be safely shortened for cystic fibrosis-related pulmonary exacerbations, physician-researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have been exploring another unresolved angle related to these admissions: when to do pulmonary…

8 Ways You Can Support Families in Need of Behavioral Health Services
8 Ways You Can Support Families in Need of Behavioral Health Services 150 150 Nancy Cunningham, PsyD

Long wait times and difficulties accessing behavioral health services cause stress for many patients and families. As awareness grows about the prevalence of behavioral health challenges for children and adolescents, more patients and families are seeking specialized care. However, due to a shortage of behavioral health specialists, wait times can seem daunting. As the pediatrician,…

Managing Depression, Anxiety and Other Behavioral Health Issues in Primary Care
Managing Depression, Anxiety and Other Behavioral Health Issues in Primary Care 1024 575 Rachael Hardison
Teen girl with backpack walking down a sidewalk facing away from the camera

An estimated 20 percent of children struggle with mental health illness. As awareness grows, the call for primary care physicians to play a leading role in care grows louder. One in five children will struggle with a mental health illness by the age of 12, but a recent survey by the American Academy of Pediatrics…

Neurosurgery May Provide Lasting Relief From Spasticity
Neurosurgery May Provide Lasting Relief From Spasticity 1024 575 Abbie Miller
A woman hugging a young girl in a hospital room lit up by sunlight

Selective dorsal rhizotomy can provide life-changing results, but patients work hard in physical and occupational therapy to get there. When Sushma Manjunatha watches her daughter sleep, she sees something new. Instead of being tightly curled up, with legs pulled in, her daughter’s legs are stretched out, finally relaxed. This change is the result of a…

Childhood Kidney Stones: Their Surprising Connection to Future Disease
Childhood Kidney Stones: Their Surprising Connection to Future Disease 150 150 Jeb Phillips

Once thought to be an adult condition, urinary stone disease is increasingly found in children – and may be related to the development of cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and low bone density. By one well-regarded estimate, the risk of developing urinary stone disease in childhood doubled between 1997 and 2012. That’s worrying enough on…

Omega-3 Supplements Tied to Notable, Sustained Mental Health Improvements
Omega-3 Supplements Tied to Notable, Sustained Mental Health Improvements 150 150 Kevin Mayhood

Case study shows reduction in bipolar youth’s psychotic mania, depression and anxiety Medications unchanged, a severely bipolar girl’s depressive, manic and psychotic symptoms improved significantly during the two years her mother added omega-3 supplements to her daily diet. The case, reported by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, is…

InSight: Restoring Normal Habits
InSight: Restoring Normal Habits 471 285 Tiasha Letostak, PhD
Medical illustration showing the placement of a sacral nerve stimulation lead: a needle inserts a thin electrode through the bony opening of the sacrum toward the sacral nerves, which are depicted branching beneath the surface.

SACRAL NERVE STIMULATION (SNS) is a new treatment that helps control urinary incontinence and fecal soiling. For some children, the nerves that control urination and bowel movements do not work correctly. The SNS unit consists of a small, safe battery and wire under the skin and sends signals to the sacral nerve. The signals help restore…

Acetabular “Fleck” Sign Predictive of Labral Avulsion
Acetabular “Fleck” Sign Predictive of Labral Avulsion 150 150 Abbie Miller

A “fleck” sign on the postreduction CT scan calls for high suspicion of labral pathology, even in cases of congruent closed reductions. Traumatic posterior hip dislocations and subluxations are typically treated with a closed reduction in pediatric patients. For patients who have a congruent hip reduction, the course of treatment often ends here. However, a new study…

InSight: Working Up the Nerve
InSight: Working Up the Nerve 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Using regional anesthesia to numb nerves reduces pain and speeds recovery in pediatric orthopedic surgery. Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia has been used in adult patients for more than a decade but is now being used more regularly in pediatric patients, especially for orthopedic procedures. Femoral nerve block, in which the femoral nerve is numbed, is among…