Steven Pon

Mortality rates in pediatric septic shock with and without multiple organ system failure

Objectives To determine the current mortality rates for pediatric patients with septic shock and the frequency and outcome of associated multiple organ system failure. Design Retrospective chart review. Setting Multidisciplinary pediatric intensive care unit. Patients Children age 1 month to 21 yrs admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit from January 1, 1998, to December 31, 1999, with a diagnosis of septic shock. Interventions None. Measurements and Main Results A database of all admissions to the pediatric intensive care unit was queried, and cases with diagnoses of sepsis and septic shock were reviewed. The final study cohort consisted of 96 episodes of septic shock in 80 patients. Septic shock was defined as a clinical suspicion of sepsis manifested by hyperthermia or hypothermia accompanied by hypotension and/or alteration in perfusion. Multiple organ system failure was defined by established criteria. Data were analyzed by using Fisher’s exact test. The overall mortality rate for the study cohort was 13.5%. There were differences in case mortality rates between patients requiring one inotropic agent (0%) and patients requiring multiple inotropic agents (42.9%), between oncology patients who had undergone bone marrow transplantation (38.5%) and oncology patients without bone marrow transplantation (5.5%), and between patients with multiple organ system failure (18.6%) and those without multiple organ system failure (0%); p < .05. There did not appear to be differences in the case mortality rates between oncology and nononcology patients or among patients with varying degrees of neutropenia. Conclusions The mortality rate in pediatric septic shock is lower than has been previously reported. Oncologic illness in the absence of bone marrow transplantation does not appear to be associated with an increased mortality rate in children with septic shock. Bone marrow transplantation patients have an increased mortality rate compared with other patients with septic shock. Mortality from septic shock occurs most frequently in the context of multiple organ system failure.

The organization of a pediatric critical care transport program.

Highly specialized pediatric critical care centers have matured significantly over the past two decades; however, access to this care is limited to tertiary care facilities and constrained by geography. With the advances of transport medicine, great distances can be spanned to bring critical care to the patient and provide effective treatment and safe transport systems where specialized care was previously unavailable. A patchwork of diverse transport systems perform pediatric transports with significant differences in the level of pediatric critical care. The optimal transport system has yet to be fully defined, but many successful systems share fundamental elements of organization.

Post hoc analysis of calfactant use in immunocompromised children with acute lung injury: Impact and feasibility of further clinical trials.

Objective: To assess the impact of calfactant (a modified natural bovine lung surfactant) in immunocompromised children with acute lung injury and to determine the number of patients required for a definitive clinical trial of calfactant in this population. Design: Post hoc analysis of data from a previous randomized, control trial. Setting: Tertiary care pediatric intensive care units. Patients: All children, defined as immunocompromised, enrolled in a multicenter, masked, randomized, control trial of calfactant for acute lung injury conducted between July 2000 and July 2003. Interventions: Patients received either an intratracheal instillation of calfactant or an equal volume of air placebo in a protocolized manner. Measurements and Main Results: Eleven of 22 (50%) calfactant-treated patients died when compared with 18 of 30 (60%) placebo patients (absolute risk reduction 10.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] −17.3, 37.3). Among the 23 patients with an initial oxygen index (OI) ≥13 and ≤37, 44% (4 of 9) of calfactant-treated patients died in comparison with 71% (10 of 14) of placebo (absolute risk reduction 27.0%, 95% CI −13.2, 67.2). Only 33% (3 of 9) of calfactant patients died before intensive care discharge in comparison with 71% (10 of 14) of placebo (absolute risk reduction 38.1%, 95% CI −0.7, 76.9). Calfactant therapy was associated with improved oxygenation in these 23 patients. Using an OI entry criterion of (13 ≤ OI ≤ 37), stratifying on the presence of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and accepting the 27% difference in mortality observed in this analysis, 63 patients would be required in each arm of a randomized, control trial to demonstrate a significant effect of calfactant on mortality in this patient population assuming a two-sided alpha of 0.05 and a power of 0.85. Conclusions: These preliminary data suggest a potential benefit of calfactant in this high-risk population. A clinical trial powered to appropriately assess these findings seems warranted and feasible.

The Internet, the electronic medical record, the pediatric intensive care unit, and everything.

This article details how computers have changed life for those of us in pediatric intensive care. A week of clinical activity is described, with a focus on the interactions with computer systems that have become an integral part of patient-care activities for many of us. It becomes clear that the boundaries between personal computers, hospital systems, and the Internet are often not sharply defined. Resources that are used every week may include those residing on a personal digital assistant, on the hospitals electronic medical record, or on a distant site on the World Wide Web. Key resources on the Internet (World Wide Web and e-mail) are identified. The technical underpinnings, particularly the network that provides the infrastructure for various resources, are described.

Multimodal Monitoring in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: New Modalities and Informatics Challenges

We review several newer modalities to monitor the brain in children with acute neurologic disease in the pediatric intensive care unit, such as partial brain tissue oxygen tension (PbtO2), jugular venous oxygen saturation (SjvO2), near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), thermal diffusion measurement of cerebral blood flow, cerebral microdialysis, and EEG. We then discuss the informatics challenges to acquire, consolidate, analyze, and display the data. Acquisition includes multiple data types: discrete, waveform, and continuous. Consolidation requires device interoperability and time synchronization. Analysis could include pressure reactivity index and quantitative EEG. Displays should communicate the patients current status, longitudinal and trend information, and critical alarms.

Quality: Performance Improvement, Teamwork, Information Technology and Protocols

Using the Institute of Medicine framework that outlines the domains of quality, this article considers four key aspects of health care delivery which have the potential to significantly affect the quality of health care within the pediatric intensive care unit. The discussion covers: performance improvement and how existing methods for reporting, review, and analysis of medical error relate to patient care; team composition and workflow; and the impact of information technologies on clinical practice. Also considered is how protocol-driven and standardized practice affects both patients and the fiscal interests of the health care system.

Outcomes following thoracoabdominal resection of neuroblastoma

Objective: To evaluate the intraoperative and postoperative care of children following thoracoabdominal resection of neuroblastoma. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of major pediatric cancer center. Patients: Eighty-eight patients undergoing thoracoabdominal resection of neuroblastoma over a 6-year period. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Demographic and clinical data were collected, including: length of PICU stay (LOS-P), duration of mechanical ventilation (MVD), mean arterial blood pressure, central venous pressure (CVP), fluid management, pressor use, and mortality. Twenty-one patients required inotropic/vasopressors support pressors following surgery. Patients who received pressors had longer operative times (p < .05) and received less intraoperative fluid (p < .05), but had the same estimated blood loss and urine output as nonpressor (NP) patients. Among the patients who received pressors, the MVD was 57 hrs, compared with 24 hrs in the NP group (p < .01). The LOS-P was 118 hours in the pressors group, vs. 69 hrs in the NP group (p < .01). The mean arterial blood pressure was lower and the CVP was higher in the pressors group compared with the NP group, and pressors patients received significantly more fluid postoperatively (p < .01). When pressors were initiated at a low CVP (<8), MVD was 39 hrs compared with 71 hrs when pressors were started at a higher CVP (p = .08). LOS-P was only slightly shorter in the low CVP group, 112 hrs vs. 123 hours (p = NS). The PICU mortality rate was 0%. Conclusions: Patients who received pressors had longer operative times and received less intraoperative fluid. Subsequently, they required more postoperative fluid, which is likely the result of hemodynamic instability leading to longer MVD and LOS-P. A prospective study evaluating operative fluid management and optimal time for initiation of pressors, in addition to the role of catecholamines and cytokines in this unique postoperative patient population is indicated.

Feasibility of Automatic Extraction of Electronic Health Data to Evaluate a Status Epilepticus Clinical Protocol

Status epilepticus is a common neurologic emergency in children. Pediatric medical centers often develop protocols to standardize care. Widespread adoption of electronic health records by hospitals affords the opportunity for clinicians to rapidly, and electronically evaluate protocol adherence. We reviewed the clinical data of a small sample of 7 children with status epilepticus, in order to (1) qualitatively determine the feasibility of automated data extraction and (2) demonstrate a timeline-style visualization of each patient’s first 24 hours of care. Qualitatively, our observations indicate that most clinical data are well labeled in structured fields within the electronic health record, though some important information, particularly electroencephalography (EEG) data, may require manual abstraction. We conclude that a visualization that clarifies a patient’s clinical course can be automatically created using the patient’s electronic clinical data, supplemented with some manually abstracted data. Future work could use this timeline to evaluate adherence to status epilepticus clinical protocols.

CALIPSO: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Calfactant for Acute Lung Injury in Pediatric Stem Cell and Oncology Patients

To assess if calfactant reduces mortality among children with leukemia/lymphoma or after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS), we conducted a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial in 17 pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) of tertiary care childrens hospitals. Patients ages 18 months to 25 years with leukemia/lymphoma or having undergone HCT who required invasive mechanical ventilation for bilateral lung disease with an oxygenation index (OI) > 10 and <37 were studied. Interventions used were intratracheal instillation of either calfactant or air placebo (1 or 2 doses). Forty-three subjects were enrolled between November 2010 and June 2015: 26 assigned to calfactant and 17 to placebo. There were no significant differences in the primary outcome, which was survival to PICU discharge (adjusted hazard ratio of mortality for calfactant versus placebo, 1.78; 95% confidence interval, .53 to 6.05; P = .35), OI, functional outcomes, or ventilator-free days, adjusting for risk strata and Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score. Despite the risk-stratified randomization, more allogeneic HCT patients received calfactant (76% and 39%, respectively) due to low recruitment at various sites. This imbalance is important because independent of treatment arm and while adjusting for PRISM score, those with allogeneic HCT had a nonsignificant higher likelihood of death at PICU discharge (adjusted odds ratio, 3.02; 95% confidence interval, .76 to 12.06; P = .12). Overall, 86% of the patients who survived to PICU discharge also were successfully discharged from the hospital. These data do not support the use of calfactant among this high mortality group of pediatric leukemia/lymphoma and/or HCT patients with PARDS to increase survival. In spite of poor enrollment, allogeneic HCT patients with PARDS appeared to be characterized by higher mortality than even other high-risk immunosuppressed groups. Conducting research among these children is challenging but necessary, because survival to PICU discharge usually results in successful discharge to home.

The Diagnostic Accuracy of Serum Procalcitonin for Bacteremia in Critically Ill Children

BackgroundBacterial sepsis is frequently encountered in children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and requires early recognition and treatment. Procalcitonin (PCT) is a serum biomarker with a high sensitivity to predict bacteremia in critically ill adults. This study sought to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of PCT for bacteremia in febrile children in the PICU. MethodsThis retrospective observational study used data from children admitted to the PICU from October 2010 to October 2012. Patients up to 21 years of age were included if they had an abnormal temperature, serum PCT, and blood culture assayed, and were not receiving empiric antibiotics at the time. ResultsThere were 202 PCT values that met inclusion criteria. The prevalence of positive blood cultures was 13.2% (27 total positive blood cultures). The area under the curve (AUC) for PCT was 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.70–0.89), the AUC for lactate was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.65–0.87), and the AUC for C-reactive protein was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.57–0.80). The optimal threshold of PCT for accuracy was determined to be 2 ng/mL (sensitivity, 69.2%; specificity, 74.4%; positive predictive value, 28.6%; negative predictive value, 94.2%). The combination of an abnormal lactate (>2.0 mmol/L) increased the specificity of PCT for diagnosing bacteremia. ConclusionsProcalcitonin has a good diagnostic accuracy to rule out bacteremia in critically ill, febrile children. The combination of PCT and an abnormal lactate value increases the specificity and may improve the ability to diagnose bacteremia.