Practical and Groundbreaking Clinical Information in One Concise Package
With each issue of Consultant for Pediatricians, we strive to bring you a balanced mix of practical articles covering the spectrum of pediatric medical care. Because so much information is available from so many sources, we aspire to offer focused, curated, peer-reviewed clinical information that you can read and digest immediately during your busy day, and then put into practice when you see your next patient — not the kind of information that you’ll file in a desk drawer with the hope of reading it when you have a free half-hour (which never seems to come).
We hope we’ve accomplished this goal with the content of this issue. In a three-part series of articles, Kathleen Moltz, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, offers what she calls her optimistic review of childhood obesity.
In it, you won’t find the formulaic approach to the subject that you’ve no doubt read dozens of times over the years — a litany of statistics, a reiteration of the published guidelines, and a dispassionate regurgitation of the standard treatment protocols. Instead, acknowledging that the traditional approach to this disease has not been working very well, Dr Moltz reframes the approach by deftly assembling a unique package of practical, commonsense advice not only about treating and preventing obesity in children, but also about obesity’s insidious societal contributors (such as advertising and marketing to kids), and the widespread belief of common myths about obesity that impedes progress against the lifelong unhealthy consequences of too much weight.
Proving that practical, real-world clinical information also can be groundbreaking, the “Case in Point” article beginning on page 514 describes a preterm female neonate with genital injury secondary to breech presentation and appears to be the first such report to be published.
In it, the authors note how the theory of medicine — what’s supposed to happen — doesn’t always match what really happens in actual clinical practice. They write, “Theoretically, this rare injury … of the genitalia as a complication of breech presentation may be prevented by cesarean delivery without a trial of labor. Our case demonstrates that a serious injury of the female genitalia in a very-low-birth weight fetus with breech presentation still can occur without a trial of labor.”
Also breaking new ground is this issue’s “Radiology Quiz.” I don’t want to reveal the answer here, but this case of a healthy newborn with a prominent lucency on his chest radiograph could represent a first in the literature, too. Turn to page 495 to see whether your interpretive skills can lead you to the correct diagnosis.
And as always, the simultaneously practical and trailblazing blend of focused pediatric information from Consultant for Pediatricians is available online at www.PediatricsConsultant360.com, on your Apple or Android tablet (just download the free app, or find it on Google Play or the Apple App Store), and in the journal’s print edition, all free of charge.
I welcome you to share your comments, suggestions, and submissions with your colleagues in Consultant for Pediatricians. Contact us in any of the ways listed below, or feel free to call me directly and toll-free at (800) 237-7285, extension 396. Thanks for reading.
Michael Gerchufsky, CMPP, ELS
Managing Editor
