Taís Sica da Rocha

Modos de morrer na UTI pediátrica de um hospital terciário

BACKGROUND To determine the prevalence of different modes of death and to identify therapeutic limitations in patients admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at a teaching hospital. METHODS A retrospective study was carried out. Information was collected from the medical records of patients who died at the PICU of Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre between July 1st, 1996 and June 30th, 1997. Four modes of death were considered: patient not responding to cardiopulmonary resuscitation methods (NRCPR), brain death (BD), withdrawal / withhold life-support measures (W/WLS) and decision not to resuscitate (DNR). For cause of death we employed the criterion of organ failure. RESULTS Out of 61 deaths occurred during the period under analysis, 44 patients were included in the study. Patient age median was 28 months. The cause of death for all patients was multiple organ failure. Twenty-six patients (59%) were classified in group I (NRCPR and BD) and 18 (41%) in group II (W/WLS and DNR). Among patients of group II, 83% had a chronic and/or debilitating disease (p = 0.017; chi(2)). The prevalent reason for patient admission was the need for organ support (55%), both respiratory and cardiovascular. The median for duration of patient stay at the PICU was 5 days and at the hospital was 11 days. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of reason for patient admission or duration of PICU/hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS There was a high prevalence of W/WLS and DNR deaths among ICU patients, thus suggesting therapeutic limitation for them. We were unable to evaluate the level of participation by the medical team and by the family in this decision making process.BACKGROUND: To determine the prevalence of different modes of death and to identify therapeutic limitations in patients admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at a teaching hospital. METHODS: A retrospective study was carried out. Information was collected from the medical records of patients who died at the PICU of Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre between July 1st, 1996 and June 30th, 1997. Four modes of death were considered: patient not responding to cardiopulmonary resuscitation methods (NRCPR), brain death (BD), withdrawal / withhold life-support measures (W/WLS) and decision not to resuscitate (DNR). For cause of death we employed the criterion of organ failure. RESULTS: Out of 61 deaths occurred during the period under analysis, 44 patients were included in the study. Patient age median was 28 months. The cause of death for all patients was multiple organ failure. Twenty-six patients (59%) were classified in group I (NRCPR and BD) and 18 (41%) in group II (W/WLS and DNR). Among patients of group II, 83% had a chronic and/or debilitating disease (p = 0.017; c2). The prevalent reason for patient admission was the need for organ support (55%), both respiratory and cardiovascular. The median for duration of patient stay at the PICU was 5 days and at the hospital was 11 days. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of reason for patient admission or duration of PICU/hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: There was a high prevalence of W/WLS and DNR deaths among ICU patients, thus suggesting therapeutic limitation for them. We were unable to evaluate the level of participation by the medical team and by the family in this decision making process.

Prevalência das síndromes inflamatórias sistêmicas em uma unidade de tratamento intensivo pediátrica terciária

Objective: To assess the prevalence of systemic inflammatory syndromes on admission to a tertiary-care university pediatric intensive care unit (ICU), and relate this to length of hospital stay, risk of death and mortality rate. Methods: Cross-sectional, prospective, observational study, including all patients admitted to the Hospital de ClInicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA) ICU between August 1st 1999 and July 31st 2000. Patient demographic variables were considered together with the risk of mortality on admission, co-morbidities, length of hospital stay and ICU outcome, in addition to variables that characterize the systemic inflammatory syndromes (systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock). Results: We studied 447 admissions of 388 patients; 54% were male, with a median age of 20 months. The prevalence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) was 68%: 2/3 infectious (sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock) and 1/3 non-infectious. Risk of mortality scores for patients with infectious SIRS were higher than for those with non-infectious SIRS (6.75% [P25=2.25 - P75=21.3] vs. 2.35% [P25=1.1 - P75=6.7]; p=0) and increased according to SIRS severity (2.9; 10.85, 43.9%; p<0.05). The observed mortality was 12% for patients with SIRS and 5.8% for those without SIRS (p=0.057); the observed mortality for infectious SIRS was 14.9% and for non-infectious 6.3% (p=0.041). The period spent in ICU for infectious SIRS was longer than for non-infectious cases: 3 days (P25=2 - P75=7) vs. 2 days (P25=1.5 - P75=4); p=0.006. Conclusions: The prevalence rate of patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome upon admission to HCPA pediatric intensive care unit was elevated, with a predominance of infectious syndromes, responsible for longer stays, increased risk of mortality and increased mortality of patients during the period evaluated.

Avaliação do conhecimento de intensivistas sobre morte encefálica

nancial losses, and unavailability of organs for transplants. The intensive care physician plays an essential role in this diagnosis. This study intended to evaluate intensivists’ knowledge concerning brain death. METHODS: Cross-sectional study in 15 intensive care units (ICU) in eight hospitals in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. RESULTS: Two hundred forty-six intensivists were interviewed in a consecutive sample between April and December 2005. The prevalence of lack of knowledge regarding the concept was of 17%. Twenty per cent of the interviewees ignored the legal need for complementary confi rmatory tests for their diagnosis. Forty-seven per cent considered themselves

Serum lactate as mortality and morbidity marker in infants after Jatene´s operation

OBJECTIVE To assess the morbidity and mortality after Jatenes operation using lactate as the main marker. METHODS We performed a historical cohort with infants admitted in a pediatric intensive care unit during 1995 to 2005 who underwent this surgery. We assessed the preoperative, immediate (IPD), third hour (3h), six hour (6h) and first day (POD1) serum lactate as well as other factors such as sepsis, increased bleeding, low cardiac output syndrome, renal insufficiency, pulmonary hypertension, cardiac arrythmias, chylothorax, myocardial ischemia, seizures, presence of other complication, and also information about length of PICU stay and death. RESULTS The mean age of 76 patients was 14.59± 19.09 days, birth weight 3.128± 0.48 kg Forty-four patients had the diagnosis of simple transposition of great arteries. The circulatory bypass time was 143.78± 28.77 minutes and aortic clamping time of 87.68± 22.3 minutes and LOS of 20.28 ± 15.62 days. Twenty four (31.58%) died during hospital stay. Lactate increased in IPD, returning to baseline at 24 hours. Patients who died raised and maintained IPD lactate higher. The 3h lactate best discriminated mortality with area under the curve of 0.68 (CI 0.54 to 0.83) P = 0.035. However, considering a cutoff point for lactate greater or equal to 5.8 mmol/dl in the 3-h PO, we obtained only 67% sensitivity and specificity of 64% for mortality. There is positive correlation between number of complications and lactate. The low cardiac output syndrome with an odds ratio (OR) of 7.67 (2.38-24), increased bleeding with OR 2.91 (1.07-7.94) and respiratory complication with OR 1.67 (1.35-2.05) are risk factors when combined. CONCLUSION After Jatenes operation, morbidity and mortality can be assessed with the serum lactate levels, suggesting increased values in the third hour is suggestive of a worse prognosis.

Escalas psicométricas como instrumentos de rastreamento para depressão em estudantes do ensino médio

Background: Depression is a major cause of suicide among adolescents. Therefore, it is crucial to find suitable depression screening tools for this population. Objective: To evaluate the use of depression rating scales as screening tools for depression in a sample of Brazilian high school students. Methods: A cross-sectional study. Three scales (BDI, CES-D, and CRS) and a screening test for general psychiatric symptoms (SRQ) were administered to a sample of 503 high school students aged between 15 to 17 years. The results were compared to those obtained with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Results: The prevalence of major depression using DSM-IV criteria was 10.9%. Adolescents with major depression had significantly higher (p = 0.001) scores in the SRQ and in the three scales analyzed compared to the group without depression. The sensitivity and specificity of BDI, CES-D, and CRS were 0.77 and 0.70, 0.75 and 0.73, and 0.82 and 0.71, respectively, to screen for major depression (ROC curve). The best cutoff values to suggest depression were 9 for BDI, 10 for CSR, and 14 for CES-D. The frequency of depressive symptoms was higher in girls (approximately 2:1). Discussion: The present findings support the use of the BDI, the CES-D and the CRS only for screening or as an additional symptomatic evaluation of depression in high school student. The difference in scale scores between boys and girls warns against the use of the same cutoff values for both sexes.

Neuropsychomotor development before and after open-heart surgery in infants

There are few Brazilian studies on neuropsychomotor follow-up after open-heart surgery with circulatory bypass in infants. Twenty infants had neurodevelopmental outcomes (neurological exam and Denver II test) assessed before open-heart surgery, after intensive care unit discharge and 3-6 months after hospital discharge. Heart lesions consisted of septal defects in 11 cases (55%). The mean circulatory bypass time was 67 +/- 23.6 minutes. Fifteen infants had altered neurological examination and also neurodevelopment delay before surgery. After 6 months it was observed normalization in 6 infants. When Denver II test indexes were analysed, it was observed an improvement in all domains except personal-social. Although those infants were in risk of new neurological findings, an early improvement on neuropsychomotor indexes were seen.