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2005-2006 News
Karen A. Diefenbach, MD named John Seashore Fellow in Pediatric Surgical
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Karen Diefenbach has joined the Section of Pediatric Surgery as our second Seashore Pediatric Surgical Research Fellow. After completing medical school and surgical residency at The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, Karen became a board certified general surgeon and worked in private practice before deciding to pursue a career in pediatric surgery. Her interests are in critical care, surgically treated congenital anomalies, and minimally invasive pediatric surgery. Karen’s current research projects include ‘Pediatric Trauma Radiation Dose’, ‘ Risk Factors for Necrotizing Entercolitis Totalis’ and ‘Association Between Intra-abdominal Pressure and Necrotizing Enterocolitis’. |
Gerber Foundation Awards $1 Million for Research by Larry Moss, MD
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A Yale School of Medicine-based, multi-institutional study on necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is being supported by a $1 million grant from the Gerber Foundation. NEC is an acute intestinal condition occurring in premature and low birth weight infants. It is the most common surgical emergency in babies and the most common gastrointestinal cause of death in babies. The grant supports the Glaser Pediatric Research Network and funds the continuation of a surgical database to look at causes of progression in this disease. R. Lawrence Moss, MD, section chief of pediatric surgery in the Department of Surgery at Yale, is surgical director of the foundation and principal investigator of the study. The Yale-led consortium includes medical schools at Stanford University, Baylor College of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, University of California at Los Angeles and Children’s Hospital Boston. NEC is an acute inflammatory condition that most frequently occurs in babies born prematurely. Death of intestinal tissue due to inadequate blood supply, and other abnormalities, may follow, leading to perforation of the gastrointestinal lining, peritonitis, respiratory failure and death. The goal of the database is to determine risk factors for intestinal perforation requiring surgical intervention; determine the relationship between feeding practices and the progression of NEC; identify current practice patterns of antibiotic therapy and its impact on disease progression, and determine disease and patient specific factors that predict long term nutritional deficiency and gastroenterological disease. “While advances in neonatal care have markedly improved outcomes for almost all causes of neonatal death and morbidity, the mortality from NEC is largely unchanged over the past 30 years,” Moss said. Almost all prior research on NEC has been performed in small numbers of patients at a single institution. The current effort represents the first multi-center coordinated effort to prospectively study this disease. In addition to developing the most robust clinical database ever attempted for NEC, the group is partnering with other investigators to identify genetic markers and serum protein inhibitors of disease progression. Source: Press Release, Yale University Office of Pubic Affairs; July 12, 2005 |
Chris Breuer, MD Awarded Grants for Tissue Engineering Research
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Chris Breuer, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics and YCCSR Faculty member, has been awarded several grants supporting his laboratory’s effort to develop tissue engineered blood vessels and cardiac valves as well as a system for controlled release of medications. These include:
Ongoing: Agency: American Surgical Association Foundation Title: Investigating the Growth Potential of Tissue Engineered Venous Conduits in a Juvenile Lamb Model Amount: $150,000 Dates: 7/1/05-6/31/07
Completed: Agency: American Pediatric Surgical Association Foundation Title: Do Tissue Engineered Grafts Grow? Amount: $10,000 Dates: 6/1/04-5/31/05
Agency: OHSE Research Grant Title: Development of a Controlled Releases System for Parathyroid Hormone Amount: $10,000 Dates: 1/1/04-12/31/04 |
YCCSR Director to become chair of American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) Outcomes Committee
Larry Moss, MD, will become Chair of APSA Outcomes Committee at APSA’s Annual Meeting in May 2006. The mission of this committee is “to facilitate the efforts of APSA members either individually or as an organization to develop clinical outcomes data and evidence based recommendations relevant to the practice of pediatric surgery”. Committee members will be directly involved in APSA’s work with the American College of Surgeons to develop a Pediatric Surgical Program within the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP). The APSA Outcomes Committee will formulate and disseminate recommendations in important areas of clinical research for APSA to incorporate into clinical practice. It will also serve as a resource for review of clinical research proposals prepared by APSA members before submission to extramural granting agencies and address the educational needs of the APSA members as they relate to clinical outcomes.
Section of Pediatric Surgery presents Research Agenda at New Canaan, Connecticut event
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Journal of Pediatric Surgery implements guidelines for reporting and submitting clinical research
The Editorial in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, A new standard for reporting clinical research in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, presents guidelines developed specifically for assessing the quality of observational or non-randomized pediatric surgical research. Co-authored by Drs. Larry Moss (YCCSR Director) and Jay Grosfeld (JPS Editor), the article includes a checklist that prospective authors can use to ensure that vital elements are included in clinical research submitted to the Journal. Guidelines exist for randomized clinical trials (RCTs); however, the majority of pediatric surgical research studies are not RCTs. The goal of these guidelines is to provide the same degree of rigor to the review of observational or non-randomized studies as is required of clinical trials. The authors anticipate an increase in the quality of clinical studies published in the JPS, and that readers will have adequate information when deciding whether to incorporate findings into clinical practice.
