Ken Farion

Clinical Risk Score for Persistent Postconcussion Symptoms Among Children With Acute Concussion in the ED

IMPORTANCE Approximately one-third of children experiencing acute concussion experience ongoing somatic, cognitive, and psychological or behavioral symptoms, referred to as persistent postconcussion symptoms (PPCS). However, validated and pragmatic tools enabling clinicians to identify patients at risk for PPCS do not exist. OBJECTIVE To derive and validate a clinical risk score for PPCS among children presenting to the emergency department. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective, multicenter cohort study (Predicting and Preventing Postconcussive Problems in Pediatrics [5P]) enrolled young patients (aged 5-<18 years) who presented within 48 hours of an acute head injury at 1 of 9 pediatric emergency departments within the Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC) network from August 2013 through September 2014 (derivation cohort) and from October 2014 through June 2015 (validation cohort). Participants completed follow-up 28 days after the injury. EXPOSURES All eligible patients had concussions consistent with the Zurich consensus diagnostic criteria. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was PPCS risk score at 28 days, which was defined as 3 or more new or worsening symptoms using the patient-reported Postconcussion Symptom Inventory compared with recalled state of being prior to the injury. RESULTS In total, 3063 patients (median age, 12.0 years [interquartile range, 9.2-14.6 years]; 1205 [39.3%] girls) were enrolled (n = 2006 in the derivation cohort; n = 1057 in the validation cohort) and 2584 of whom (n = 1701 [85%] in the derivation cohort; n = 883 [84%] in the validation cohort) completed follow-up at 28 days after the injury. Persistent postconcussion symptoms were present in 801 patients (31.0%) (n = 510 [30.0%] in the derivation cohort and n = 291 [33.0%] in the validation cohort). The 12-point PPCS risk score model for the derivation cohort included the variables of female sex, age of 13 years or older, physician-diagnosed migraine history, prior concussion with symptoms lasting longer than 1 week, headache, sensitivity to noise, fatigue, answering questions slowly, and 4 or more errors on the Balance Error Scoring System tandem stance. The area under the curve was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.69-0.74) for the derivation cohort and 0.68 (95% CI, 0.65-0.72) for the validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE A clinical risk score developed among children presenting to the emergency department with concussion and head injury within the previous 48 hours had modest discrimination to stratify PPCS risk at 28 days. Before this score is adopted in clinical practice, further research is needed for external validation, assessment of accuracy in an office setting, and determination of clinical utility.

Prognosticators of Persistent Symptoms Following Pediatric Concussion: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVE To identify predictors of persistent concussion symptoms (PCS) in children following concussion. DATA SOURCES We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library to April 2012. STUDY SELECTION A systematic review of the literature to identify prognosticators of PCS following pediatric concussion was conducted. Studies evaluating patients aged 2 years to 18 years with PCS were eligible. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The association of clinically available factors with PCS development. RESULTS A literature search yielded 824 records; 561 remained after removal of duplicates. Fifteen studies were included in descriptive analysis; heterogeneity precluded a meta-analysis. Larger prospective studies concluded that the risk for PCS was increased in older children with loss of consciousness, headache, and/or nausea/vomiting. Smaller studies noted that initial dizziness may predict PCS. Patients with premorbid conditions (eg, previous head injury, learning difficulties, or behavioral problems) may also have increased risk. CONCLUSIONS Minimal, and at times contradictory, evidence exists to associate clinically available factors with eventual development of PCS in children. Future trials must be adequately powered to determine which variables best predict the time to full symptom resolution. Expert consensus should delineate which postconcussion assessment measures are preferred to reduce heterogeneity going forward. Research to improve care for the epidemic of pediatric concussion depends on early identification of those most in need of intervention.

The effect of vapocoolant spray on pain due to intravenous cannulation in children: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Established noninvasive pharmacologic means of alleviating pain and anxiety in children undergoing intravenous cannulation are time-consuming, and thus impractical for routine use in the emergency department. Vapocoolant sprays provide transient skin anesthesia within seconds of application. We compared the effect of a new vapocoolant spray to placebo on pain due to intravenous cannulation in children. Methods: In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, which we conducted between June 1 and Sept. 12, 2006, 80 children aged 6–12 years received either vapocoolant spray or placebo before cannulation. Children rated their pain using a 100-mm colour visual analogue scale. Secondary outcomes included success rate on first attempt at cannulation and pain ratings by the childrens parents, nurses and child life specialists. Results: We found a modest but significant reduction in pain with the use of vapocoolant spray (mean difference 19 mm, 95% confidence interval [CI] 6–32 mm; p < 0.01). Cannulation on first attempt was more often successful with the use of vapocoolant spray (85.0%) than with placebo (62.5%) (mean difference 22.5%, 95% CI 3.2%–39.9%; p = 0.03). The number needed to treat to prevent 1 cannulation failure was 5 (95% CI 3–32). Parents (p = 0.04), nurses (p = 0.01) and child life specialists (p < 0.01) considered the childrens pain to be reduced with the use of vapocoolant spray. Interpretation: The vapocoolant spray in our study quickly and effectively reduced pain due to intravenous cannulation in children and improved the success rate of cannulation. It is an important option to reduce childhood procedural pain in emergency situations, especially when time precludes traditional interventions. (http://ClinicalTrials.gov trial register no. NCT00130650.)

Practice Variations in the Treatment of Febrile Infants Among Pediatric Emergency Physicians

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to characterize variations in treatment decisions for young febrile infants in pediatric emergency departments across Canada and to document the extent of practice variations among pediatric emergency department practitioners. METHODS: This was a prospective, concurrent, cohort study of consecutive infants up to 90 days of age who presented to 6 pediatric emergency departments in Canada with fever (rectal temperature of ≥38.0°C). We recorded information in the emergency department and contacted the families by telephone to confirm the final disposition. RESULTS: A total of 257 infants were recruited over 2 to 4 months. Patients were similar across centers in terms of gestational age and weight, chronologic age at arrival, weight, and gender. Temperatures measured at home and during triage and durations of fever also were similar among centers. In one center, significantly more children arrived with cough; in another center, fewer parents reported sick contacts at home. Rates of blood and urine testing were not significantly different across sites, but rates of lumbar puncture, respiratory virus testing, and chest radiography were different. A total of 55% of infants received antibiotics, and significant practice variations in the numbers and types of antibiotics used were documented. CONCLUSIONS: Practices in the evaluation of young infants with fever in tertiary pediatric emergency departments varied substantially. Blood and urine tests were ordered in the majority of centers, but rates of cerebrospinal fluid testing and antibiotic treatment differed across centers.

Tissue adhesives for traumatic lacerations: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE To summarize the best available evidence for the effect of tissue adhesives (TAs) in managing traumatic lacerations in children and adults. METHODS A search was conducted using the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, Medline, and EMBase for relevant studies. The authors also searched the citations of selected studies and contacted relevant authors and manufacturers. The search included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing a TA versus standard wound closure (sutures, staples, adhesive strips) (SWC) or two TAs for acute, linear, low-tension, traumatic lacerations in an emergency or primary care setting. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked for accuracy by a second reviewer. Two reviewers independently assessed masked copies for quality. Outcomes of cosmesis (subgroups of age, wound location, and need for deep sutures), pain, procedure time, ease of use, and complications were analyzed separately for two comparisons: 1). TA versus SWC; and 2). TA versus TA. RESULTS Eight studies compared a TA with SWC. No significant difference was found for cosmesis at any time point examined. Subgroup analysis was possible only for age; no significant difference was found. Pain scores [Parent Visual Analogue Scale weighted mean difference (VAS WMD) = -15.7 mm; 95% CI = -21.9 to -9.5] and procedure time (WMD = -5.7 minutes; 95% CI = -8.2 to -3.1) significantly favored TAs. Small, statistically significant risk differences were found for dehiscence [favoring SWC; number needed to harm (NNH) = 25; 95% CI = 14 to 100] and erythema (favoring TAs; NNH = 8; 95% CI = 4 to 100). Only one study compared two TAs (butylcyanoacrylate versus octylcyanoacrylate) for pediatric facial lacerations. No significant difference was found for cosmesis, pain, procedure time, or complications. CONCLUSIONS TAs are an acceptable alternative to SWC for simple traumatic lacerations. No difference in cosmesis was found between TAs and SWC, or between different TAs. Tissue adhesives offer the benefits of decreased procedure time and less pain, compared with SWC. A small increased rate of dehiscence with TAs must be considered when choosing the closure method (NNH = 25).

Mitigation of adverse interactions in pairs of clinical practice guidelines using constraint logic programming

We propose a new method to mitigate (identify and address) adverse interactions (drug-drug or drug-disease) that occur when a patient with comorbid diseases is managed according to two concurrently applied clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). A lack of methods to facilitate the concurrent application of CPGs severely limits their use in clinical practice and the development of such methods is one of the grand challenges for clinical decision support. The proposed method responds to this challenge. We introduce and formally define logical models of CPGs and other related concepts, and develop the mitigation algorithm that operates on these concepts. In the algorithm we combine domain knowledge encoded as interaction and revision operators using the constraint logic programming (CLP) paradigm. The operators characterize adverse interactions and describe revisions to logical models required to address these interactions, while CLP allows us to efficiently solve the logical models - a solution represents a feasible therapy that may be safely applied to a patient. The mitigation algorithm accepts two CPGs and available (likely incomplete) patient information. It reports whether mitigation has been successful or not, and on success it gives a feasible therapy and points at identified interactions (if any) together with the revisions that address them. Thus, we consider the mitigation algorithm as an alerting tool to support a physician in the concurrent application of CPGs that can be implemented as a component of a clinical decision support system. We illustrate our method in the context of two clinical scenarios involving a patient with duodenal ulcer who experiences an episode of transient ischemic attack.

Implementing an Integrative Multi-agent Clinical Decision Support System with Open Source Software

Clinical decision making is a complex multi-stage process. Decision support can play an important role at each stage of this process. At present, the majority of clinical decision support systems have been focused on supporting only certain stages. In this paper we present the design and implementation of MET3—a prototype multi-agent system providing an integrative decision support that spans over the entire decision making process. The system helps physicians with data collection, diagnosis formulation, treatment planning and finding supporting evidence. MET3 integrates with external hospital information systems via HL7 messages and runs on various computing platforms available at the point of care (e.g., tablet computers, mobile phones). Building MET3 required sophisticated and reliable software technologies. In the past decade the open source software movement has produced mature, stable, industrial strength software systems with a large user base. Therefore, one of the decisions that should be considered before developing or acquiring a decision support system is whether or not one could use open source technologies instead of proprietary ones. We believe MET3 shows that the answer to this question is positive.

Development of a Decision Algorithm to Support Emergency Triage of Scrotal Pain and its Implementation in the met system

Abstract The acute scrotum is a clinical condition in boys and adolescent males that is normally first assessed in the Emergency Department of a hospital. We used data from the patients’ charts and applied knowledge discovery technique based on rough set theory to develop a clinical decision algorithm for iriaging patients with this condition. As demonstrated by a limited retrospective evaluation, the algorithm supports early triage decisions on the basis of readily available information, resulting in good triage accuracy. In order to make the algorithm usable in clinical practice, to integrate it with the workflow, and to make it available at the point of care, we implemented it as an application in the mobile clinical decision support environment called MET (Mobile Emergency Triage). MET uses ontologies to represent domains of various acute presentations and triage support functionalities, and renders specific applications on demand from these ontologies.

Automatic indexing and retrieval of encounter-specific evidence for point-of-care support

Evidence-based medicine relies on repositories of empirical research evidence that can be used to support clinical decision making for improved patient care. However, retrieving evidence from such repositories at local sites presents many challenges. This paper describes a methodological framework for automatically indexing and retrieving empirical research evidence in the form of the systematic reviews and associated studies from The Cochrane Library, where retrieved documents are specific to a patient-physician encounter and thus can be used to support evidence-based decision making at the point of care. Such an encounter is defined by three pertinent groups of concepts - diagnosis, treatment, and patient, and the framework relies on these three groups to steer indexing and retrieval of reviews and associated studies. An evaluation of the indexing and retrieval components of the proposed framework was performed using documents relevant for the pediatric asthma domain. Precision and recall values for automatic indexing of systematic reviews and associated studies were 0.93 and 0.87, and 0.81 and 0.56, respectively. Moreover, precision and recall for the retrieval of relevant systematic reviews and associated studies were 0.89 and 0.81, and 0.92 and 0.89, respectively. With minor modifications, the proposed methodological framework can be customized for other evidence repositories.

Using Constraint Logic Programming to Implement Iterative Actions and Numerical Measures during Mitigation of Concurrently Applied Clinical Practice Guidelines

There is a pressing need in clinical practice to mitigate (identify and address) adverse interactions that occur when a comorbid patient is managed according to multiple concurrently applied disease-specific clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). In our previous work we described an automatic algorithm for mitigating pairs of CPGs. The algorithm constructs logical models of processed CPGs and employs constraint logic programming to solve them. However, the original algorithm was unable to handle two important issues frequently occurring in CPGs – iterative actions forming a cycle and numerical measurements. Dealing with these two issues in practice relies on a physician’s knowledge and the manual analysis of CPGs. Yet for guidelines to be considered stand-alone and an easy to use clinical decision support tool this process needs to be automated. In this paper we take an additional step towards building such a tool by extending the original mitigation algorithm to handle cycles and numerical measurements present in CPGs.