Summer musings

Abstract

Abstract Reflecting on the title, I suppose that I should acknowledge that while it is summer here in the northern hemisphere, our colleagues in the south are in the depths of winter. Whatever time of year it is I hope that these offerings bring you food for thought. Starting, as usual, with review articles, Adriana Pacheco, and her colleagues from Portugal, offer us our first course, with a scoping review of music as a non-pharmacological method of pain relief in the neonate. We tend to see scoping reviews where there is little published literature and I commend them on finding 20 articles worthy of inclusion. The fact that they find a positive result for neonates but not for infants indicates that more research in needed in this very interesting area. Yu-Ju Shao and colleagues from Taiwan have started the process, showing that there is a statistical difference in the heart rate and blood oxygen levels in those babies exposed to music therapy compare to those receiving normal care. I am sure that there is more to come on this subject. On the other hand, Sin Yan Victoria Linda Fong, writing in Hong Kong, found much less literature on trauma caused by the rotation of the interface devices used when neonates require non-invasive ventilation. Again a really interesting area where there is much more research available on how well individual devices protect neonates’ noses than on the practice of alternating devices. Alternation is common practice and it is good to see evidence to support it. More is required.