On balance, new guidelines for parents and practitioners are helpful and workable
Which infants at the margins of viability should receive neonatal intensive care and how should such decisions be made? These challenging questions are posed in this issue of the Journal by Lui and colleagues.1 Their answers, arrived at by means of a multidisciplinary conference, are presented as a consensus statement that makes several recommendations for practice.
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- Department of Paediatrics, Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand.
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- 8. Darlow BA, Hutchinson JL, Henderson-Smart DJ, et al. Prenatal risk factors for severe retinopathy of prematurity among very preterm infants of the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network. Pediatrics 2005; 115: 990-996.
- 9. Watts JL, Saigal S. Outcome of extreme prematurity: as information increases so do the dilemmas. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2006; 91: F221-F225.
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- 11. Lorenz JM. Ethical dilemmas in the care of the most premature infants: the waters are murkier than ever. Curr Opin Pediatr 2005; 17: 186-190.