Essential Neonatal Medicine 6th edition

Neonatology is coming of age as a speciality — when the First Edition of this book was published 30 years ago, neonatal medicine was evolving rapidly and the emphasis was rightly on improving survival, especially at the margins of extreme prematurity. Now, survival is greater than 90% down to 28 weeks, and survival at 24 weeks — previously regarded as the threshold of viability — exceeds 60%. With this improvement in survival, emphasis has begun to turn to the quality of care, quality of family support, and to the longer-term outcomes of graduates of the neonatal intensive care unit.

Parents and siblings are now routinely welcomed into the nursery, whereas 30 years ago they may have been restricted in their visiting, and family-centred and family integrated care is becoming the normal. There is an increasing emphasis on risk reduction and minimizing harm — whether through hospital-acquired infections, injury from lines and procedures, or preventing ventilator-associated lung injury with the use of
minimally invasive ventilation. There is also a greater recognition of the subtle but significant developmental and health challenges faced by only moderately pre-term babies, who are considerably greater in number than the extreme preterm babies.

To reflect this evolution this Essential Neonatal Medicine 6th edition book has also evolved, with new chapters on palliative and end-of-life care, a greater emphasis on developmental and family care, and comprehensively updated chapters to include the latest developments in diagnostic imaging and genetic testing available.Author thinks that Essential Neonatal Medicine offers a comprehensive introduction to modern neonatology for trainee doctors, neonatal nurses, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals.