AN OPERATION used to help premature babies get enough oxygen may itself cause brain damage, animal studies suggest. The work is likely to fuel debate about the best way to treat premature babies.
To try to get an objective measure of how treatments affect babies’ brains, a team led by Sandra Rees and Terrie Inder of Melbourne University in Australia examined the brains of 22 baboons born prematurely by Caesarean section at about the same stage of development as a 27-week human baby. At birth, all were placed on respirators. Five days later, some had an operation to close a blood vessel called the ductus arteriosus,…
