Neonatal Brain Injury: An Illustrated Guide for Clinicians Counselling Parents and Caregivers

This book in Open Access is the first to provide clinicians with practical guidelines to explain the most frequently occurring neonatal brain injuries to parents and caretakers.

The brains of high-risk neonates are vulnerable to often severe injury, and brain injuries are among the most serious complications in patients admitted to neonatal intensive care. In addition to basic explanations on the origin, extent, severity, consequences, and treatment options, the book provides illustrations and representative imaging examples that enable clinicians to provide parents with the necessary information in a clear and concise way, using lay language and simple drawings.

Therefore, this book is a valuable resource for practitioners from various disciplines, including neonatologists, pediatricians, neurologists, (neuro- and pediatric-) radiologists, neonatal nurse specialists, and physician assistants.

This is an open access book.

Dr. Gerda Meijler MD, PhD trained as a pediatrician-neonatologist in Utrecht and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She recently retired from Isala Women and Children’s Hospital, Zwolle, the Netherlands, where she now has a research appointment, and previously worked in Toronto in Canada, and Leiden and Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Gerda Meijler specialized in the field of neonatal neurology. In collaboration with Linda de Vries and Frances Cowan she has taught the annual Cranial Ultrasound Courses in London (UK), Imperial College of Medicine for more than twenty years.

The faculty has recently included a group of younger experts in the field, and the same course is now also being offered in Calgary in Canada.

Gerda is an active member of the Educational Committee of the Newborn Brain Society (NBS) and responsible for some of the teaching modalities on the NBS website.

She completed her PhD in 1999 on preterm brain imaging. Since then, her research has focused on neonatal neuroimaging with about 80 journal papers on this subject, several book chapters, and the book: Neonatal Cranial Ultrasonography (published by Springer), of which the completely revised 3rd edition (2019) was co-authored by Sylke Steggerda from Leiden University Medical Center. She has supervised multiple PhD students in the field of fetal and neonatal neuro-imaging and neurodevelopment.

Dr. Khorshid Mohammad is a Staff Neonatologist at Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada and a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Dr. Mohammad graduated in 2006 from the University of Damascus and Arab League with Master’s degree in Pediatrics. He completed neonatal fellowship training at the University of Calgary in 2010, Neonatal Neurology training at the University of British Columbia, and Targeted Neonatal Echocardiography at Universities of British Columbia and Calgary in 2013.

In 2014, Dr. Mohammad established the Neonatal Neuro-Critical Care program in Calgary in collaboration with Pediatric Neurology. Dr. Mohammad is a founding member of the Sonographic Clinical Assessment of the Newborn (SCAN) program. Dr. Mohammad’s main areas of interest are innovation in education and quality improvement . Dr. Mohammad established Innovation in neonatal neuro-critical care education lab including cranial ultrasonography phantoms and simulators, Neonatal EEG simulator, Neonatal neurological exam using Virtual reality and Mannequins, online teaching modules in neonatal neurology and smart phones applications. He organized and led several conferences, workshops, and courses in Neonatal neuro-monitoring locally and around the world. He is a founding member of the Newborn Brain Society, Chair of the Society Educational Committee and member of Board of Directors. Dr. Mohammad’s quality improvement work led to significant reduction in mortality and brain injury in extremely premature infants and term infants who suffered from asphyxia and seizures. Dr. Mohammad received the Canadian Pediatric Society emerging leader in neonatology award in 2020. Dr. Mohammad’s areas of research interest are education, brain perfusion, monitoring, and quality Improvement neuroprotection strategies. He published many studies in those areas and holds several research grants.