Onno K Helder

Erasmus MC | Erasmus MC · Department of Pediatrics

Introduction Weekly head circumference (HC) measurements using a measuring tape is the current standard for longitudinal brain growth monitoring of preterm infants. The MONITOR3D (M3D) 3D scanner has been developed to measure both HC and cranial volume (CrV) of preterm infants within incubators. The M3D’s usability, accuracy and precision were vali...

Introduction Growth monitoring of preterm infants is essential for assessing the nutritional effects on their growth. The current growth monitoring techniques are too stressful, however, for the smallest preterm infants. We performed a systematic review to summarize studies on stress-free techniques for measuring the body size of preterm infants in...

Background: The use of antiseptic barrier caps reduced the occurrence of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in adult intensive care settings. We assessed the effect of the use of antiseptic barrier caps on the incidence of CLABSI in infants and children and evaluated the implementation process. Methods: We performed a mixed-...

Introduction Sustained high compliance with hand hygiene prior to patient contact in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) could reduce the spread of pathogens and incidence of bloodstream infections of preterm infants. These infections are associated with high mortality, morbidity and additional costs. Behaviour change interventions to promote han...

Mechanical ventilation is one of the most commonly used treatments in neonatology. Prolonged mechanical ventilation is associated with deleterious outcomes. To reduce the ventilation duration, weaning protocols have been developed to achieve extubation in adult and pediatric care in a safe and uniform manner. We performed a systematic review to obt...

In the meta-analysis we compared two types of ‘barrier caps’ respectively the Curos and the SwabCap. We described that the study of Cameron-Watson (2016) used the Curos barrier cap, however, this is incorrect. Cameron-Watson studied the effectiveness of the Curos barrier cap. This incorrect description has consequences for the subgroup analysis (of...

Background Mechanical ventilation is a life-saving intervention for critically ill newborn infants with respiratory failure admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Ventilating newborn infants can be challenging due to small tidal volumes, high breathing frequencies, and the use of uncuffed endotracheal tubes. Mechanical ventilation has s...

Background: Displaying screen savers with gain-framed messages are effective to improve hand hygiene, but the design of screen savers has not been studied yet. Methods: Based on the literature, scientific propositions were developed for the design of screen savers, exploring 2 strategies to subconsciously influence hand hygiene behavior; the fir...

The aim of the study was to determine the effectiveness of a feedback intervention on adherence to disinfection procedures during intravenous medication preparation and administration. We found that full adherence to the protocols significantly improved from 7.3% to 21.5% (P <.001) regarding medication preparation and from 7.9% to 15.5% (P =.012) r...

Background: Central-line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are a major problem in intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. We aimed to quantify the effectiveness of central-line bundles (insertion or maintenance or both) to prevent these infections. Methods: We searched Embase, MEDLINE OvidSP, Web-of-Science, and Cochrane Library to iden...

Background: Sustained high compliance with hand hygiene (HH) is needed to reduce nosocomial bloodstream infections (NBSIs). However, over time, a wash out effect often occurs. We studied the long-term effect of sequential HH-promoting interventions. Methods: An observational study with an interrupted time series analysis of the occurrence of NBS...

Background: Mechanical ventilation is a life-saving intervention for critically ill newborn infants with respiratory failure admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Ventilating newborn infants can be challenging due to small tidal volumes, high breathing frequencies, and the use of uncuffed endotracheal tubes. Mechanical ventilation has...

Central venous catheter-associated bloodstream infections in children are an increasingly recognized serious safety problem worldwide, but are often preventable. Central venous catheter bundles have proved effective to prevent such infections. Successful implementation requires changes in the hospital system as well as in healthcare professionals'...

Background Good hand hygiene compliance is essential to prevent nosocomial infections in healthcare settings. Direct observation of hand hygiene compliance is the gold standard but is time consuming. An electronic dispenser with built-in wireless recording equipment allows continuous monitoring of its usage. The purpose of this study was to monitor...

Background Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) incidence is lower in preterm infants who are fed their own mother’s milk (OMM) compared to formula. Possible mechanisms include protective factors of human milk or detrimental effects of formula. OMM is often unavailable, especially in the first few days following birth, while frequently donor milk is not...

Background: The incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and possibly also of sepsis is lower in preterm infants fed their own mother's milk (hereafter 'mother's milk') compared with formula-fed infants. It is unclear whether this is caused by the protective properties of breast milk or by the absence of cow's milk. Especially in early life, m...

Background and aims Appropriate hand hygiene among healthcare workers is the most important infection prevention measure; however, compliance is generally low. Gain-framed messages (i.e. messages that emphasise the benefits of hand hygiene rather than the risks of noncompliance) may be most effective. The aim of this study was to test the impact of...

BACKGROUND: Bloodstream infections are associated with increased morbidity and mortality in very low birth weight infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the available evidence for the effectiveness of non-pharmacological bloodsteam infection-preventive measures in infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit...

To explore parents' and nurses' experiences with the transition of infants from the neonatal intensive care unit to a special care nursery. Qualitative explorative study in two phases. Level IIID neonatal intensive care unit in a university hospital and special care nurseries (level II) in five community hospitals in the Netherlands. Twenty-one pai...

Nosocomial bloodstream infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal intensive care units. Appropriate hand hygiene is singled out as the most important measure in preventing these infections. However, hand hygiene compliance among healthcare professionals remains low despite the well-known effect on infection reduction. We st...

Endotracheaal uitzuigen bij patiënten aan de beademing is een handeling die intensive-carever-pleegkundigen vaak uitvoeren. Alle stappen van deze handeling staan beschreven in een verpleegkundig protocol dat tot voor kort gebaseerd was op ervaring. Alle beschreven interventies van dit uitzuigprotocol zijn door zes groepen studenten van de ic-opleid...

To the Editor: In response to Vandijck and colleagues’ comment (Vandijck et al., 2009) on our editorial (Helder and Latour, 2009) concerning the improvement of hand hygiene in order to decrease infection rate in patients, we would like to raise the following issues. Vandijck and colleagues argue that registered critical care practitioners and under...

Background: Increased mucus production is a common phenomena following ventilatory support, which might increase morbidity. In order to reduce airway obstruction we tested the effect of vibration therapy on the duration of ventilatory support. Methodology: We conducted a randomised control study in a level IIIC NICU (28 beds) of a university hospit...

To compare effects on premature infants' weight gain of a computer-generated and a nurse-determined incubator humidity strategy. An optimal humidity protocol is thought to reduce time to regain birthweight. Prospective randomized controlled design. Level IIIC neonatal intensive care unit in the Netherlands. Infants of 24 to 30 weeks gestational age...