Observational studyEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2022
Drug utilisation in neonatal units in England and Wales: a national cohort study.
Observational study in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03773289 (Drug Utilization Patterns in Neonatal Units in the UK), which is not on this map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Drug Utilization Patterns in Neonatal Units in the UK: a Retrospective Pharmaco-epidemiological Study
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Paracetamol as analgesic and risk of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in extremely preterm infants: a secondary analysis of the BeNeDuctus trial.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Differential Analysis of Neonatal Adverse Drug Events from Intrauterine and Extrauterine Exposure: Insights into Administration Routes Using the FAERS Database.Zeitschrift fur Geburtshilfe und Neonatologie · 2026Article
- Article
- Neonatology: First Exposure to Antibiotics from the Ethical Perspective of Parents, Physicians, and Regulators.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of early life antibiotic and probiotic treatment on gut microbiome and resistome of very-low-birth-weight preterm infants.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Impact of NICE clinical guidelines for prevention and treatment of neonatal infections on antibiotic use in very preterm infants in England and Wales: an interrupted time series analysis.Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition · 2024Article
- Incidence of Antibiotic Exposure for Suspected and Proven Neonatal Early-Onset Sepsis between 2019 and 2021: A Retrospective, Multicentre Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Clinical and economic impact of medication administration errors among neonates in neonatal intensive care units.PloS one · 2024Observational
- Association between opioid use during mechanical ventilation in preterm infants and evidence of brain injury: a propensity score-matched cohort study.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Acetaminophen for the patent ductus arteriosus: has safety been adequately demonstrated?Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2023Review
- Neonatal Drug Formularies-A Global Scope.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Complex roles of TGF-β signaling pathways in lung development and bronchopulmonary dysplasia.American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology · 2023Review
- Sedation and analgesia from prolonged pain and stress during mechanical ventilation in preterm infants: is dexmedetomidine an alternative to current practice?BMJ paediatrics open · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo describe drug utilisation patterns in neonatal units.
methodsRetrospective observational cohort study using data held in the National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD) for neonatal units in England and Wales including infants born at 23 to 44 weeks' gestational age (GA) from 01 January 2010 to 31 December 2017.
resultsThe cohort included 17,501 (3%) extremely preterm infants; 40,607 (7%) very preterm infants; 193,536 (31%) moderate-to-late preterm infants; and 371,606 (59%) term infants. The number of unique drugs received by an infant (median (IQR)) increased with decreasing GA: 17 (11-24) in extremely preterm, 7 (5-11) in very preterm, 3 (0-4) in moderate-to-late preterm, and 3 (0-3) in term infants. The two most frequently prescribed drugs were benzylpenicillin and gentamicin in all GA groups, and caffeine in extremely preterm. Other frequently used drugs among preterm infants were electrolytes, diuretics and anti-reflux medications. Among infants <32 weeks' GA, the largest increase in use was for surfactant (given on the neonatal unit), caffeine and probiotics, while domperidone and ranitidine had the largest decline.
conclusionAntibiotics, for all GAs and caffeine, among preterm infants, are the most frequently used drugs in neonatal medicine. Preterm infants are exposed to a high burden of drugs, particularly antibiotics. Changing patterns in use reflect the emergence of evidence in some areas but several non-evidence-based drugs continue to be used widely. Improvements are needed to ensure rational drug use on neonatal units. REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03773289). Date of registration 21 Dec 2018.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.