(long, sorry, skip to the bottom if needed)

This is occasionally mentioned here on Lactnet, when a hospitalized
(particularly critically ill) lactating mom is told that her BM is
unusable for whatever reason.

Our surgical ICU also takes care of any OB patients who require intensive
care, though they are few in number.  Plus would care for any other woman
who is critically ill from a surgical disease or trauma.

My research is on surgical infectious diseases, which got me thinking that
I might have the opportunity to study the effects of sepsis, or other
critical illness, on breastmilk.  Bacterial contents, drug transmissions,
etc.  I would need to develop a prospective protocol, though, and the
numbers for enrollment will probably be 1 or 2 a year...

I don't know if this is feasible, yet, or even what questions need to be
answered.  I am going to do a Medline search and search the archives here
but wanted to ask for your help also.

1) Please send me any info that you might have, preferably citations to
published or presented research on breastmilk and critical illness or
infection.

2) Please let me know if you know of institutions that are researching
this now or recently -- they might be good contacts.

My research mentor may think I have lost my mind, but it would be a
project I could get really excited about.  Plus, as a selling point for
him, a lot of the societies love talks on "sexy" topics.

Thanks for your help!

Shannon Tierney McElearney, MD
mom to 11 month old nursling Jack :)
PGY3 General Surgery
Surgical Infectious Diseases Research Lab
University of Virginia

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html