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Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) is pleased to offer monthly audio summaries that feature readings of the issue's most recent research abstracts. Audio summaries ensure accessibility of the information harbored in the journal and provide a convenient way to keep up with the latest in the field.
New summaries will be added in conjunction with each issue of PCCM released, so be sure to sign up for new issue alerts and bookmark this page. Please email journals@sccm.org with any feedback or suggestions.
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The November 2023 issue of PCCM is focused entirely on cardiac critical care topics. The feature article describes prevalence and risk factors of children exposed to toxic levels of cardiovascular medications, while clinical investigations cover a breadth of topics from using a psychosocial care model, extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in heart disease, minimizing blood draws, and more. A couple of articles highlight airway management and complications in patients with heart disease. Special articles and a clinical physiology review make this issue quite an interesting read.
The October 2023 audio summary features articles examining pediatric sepsis phenotypes, implementation of an abbreviated neuropsychological evaluation for patients with acquired brain injury, and use of therapeutic plasma exchange and continuous renal replacement therapy in children with dengue-associated acute liver failure and shock syndrome. Clinical investigations evaluated measured body weight and fluid balance as well as association of fluid balance with mortality and health-related quality of life, disorders of consciousness in pediatric severe sepsis and organ failure, measuring energy requirements in traumatic brain injury, parent experience in interhospital transfer of children to pediatric intensive care units (PICUs), visitation and parental policies related to PICU admission, and trends in oncology admissions to PICUs. This issue also included a special article with consensus statements regarding continuity strategies for long-stay PICU patients.
The September 2023 issue features articles on pediatric acute respiratory failure, including support modalities and analysis of cytokine measures in children. Other respiratory articles included in this month’s issue examine the role of plateau and driving pressures in pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome, pre-extubation cuffed tube leaks and association with post-extubation laryngeal edema, and hyperoxia exposure and mortality. Other clinical investigations include examining the lactate/albumin ratio in critically ill children, hyperferritinemia in severe dengue infection, rewarming children after drowning-associated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and using clinical instability as a sign of severity of illness, among others.
The July 2023 issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) features articles on clinical variables in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) that may affect neurologic outcomes, unplanned extubations in cardiac intensive care units, and the role of biomarkers in sepsis risk stratification in low- to middle-income countries. The clinical investigations focus on pulmonary physiology, especially pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS) and adverse events related to intubation in patients who have received hematopoietic cell transplants. The PCCM trial this month highlights a promising novel hemodialysis device for infants, and the clinical investigations cover the effect of mechanical power on mortality in patients with PARDS, clinician-assigned functional outcome scores in critically ill children, and the use of empirical acyclovir in children with acute encephalitis. The cardiac intensive care articles are both interesting quality improvement initiatives, one focusing on implementation of a sedation-weaning protocol and the other focusing on limiting blood draws for patients. Lastly, a meta-analysis assesses the use of aortic peak flow velocity in predicting fluid responsiveness in mechanically ventilated patients.
The June 2023 issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine features articles on implementing primary care physicians for long-stay pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients, diaphragm tonic activity in PICU patients, and an analysis of pulse oximetry and arterial saturation differences by race in pediatric COVID-19 patients. Clinical investigations cover analgesia and sedation at terminal extubation, demographics associated with the first Malawian PICU, implementing a multidisciplinary PICU follow-up clinic, and analyzing anticoagulation-free periods for pediatric patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The online articles examine sepsis definitions in children worldwide, high-frequency oscillatory ventilation in critically ill children, improving efficiency and productivity in multidisciplinary surgical rounds in the pediatric cardiac ICU, and evidence for escalation of antimicrobial regimens in febrile oncology and hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients in the PICU.
The May 2023 issue features a study examining characteristics and outcomes in pediatric patients with COVID-19 or multisystem inflammatory syndrome who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in U.S. intensive care units. The feature review article is a meta-analysis identifying factors contributing to the common problem of delirium in critically ill children. This PCCM issue is diverse, with studies exploring how to improve daily patient goal setting, long-term quality of life in patients with congenital heart disease, the impact of patient acuity levels on team rounding, prehospital tranexamic acid administration in pediatric trauma patients, the association of prehospital physician presence during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with neurologic outcomes, and more.
This month’s issue features four diverse articles. One explores the interpretation of Von Willebrand factor multimers, concentration, and function in patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO); another investigates the prevalence of mental health and emotional disorders among pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an article assessing neurocognitive, psychosocial, and quality-of-life outcomes in pediatric patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children who were admitted to the PICU, and another reviewing social determinants of health in children with sepsis. Clinical investigations explore the epidemiology of unplanned extubations, a machine model to track clinical deterioration in hospitalized patients, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome in children with acute myeloid leukemia. Trials and brief reports investigate obtaining assent for PICU research studies, the Cardiohelp ECMO system, and continuous venovenous hemofiltration in neonates with fluid overload.
This month’s issue features diverse articles, including:
This month’s issue debuts two late-breaker articles—one that describes the use of restrictive transfusion practices in hemodynamically stable critically ill children and one that describes long-term pediatric critical care-associated parental traumatic stress. The feature article describes a multicenter collaborative assessing mechanical ventilation practices with liver transplantation in children. Other articles evaluate the use of a protocol, modalities of support, and the amount of oxygen used in bronchiolitis, which are especially pertinent this time of year. This month’s issue also releases the executive summary of the updated Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference (PALICC-2) international guidelines for diagnosis and management of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome. Online review articles evaluate the use of diaries as aids in pediatric and neonatal ICUs and establish a definition for pediatric chronic illness, while the neurocritical care article measures outcomes in children after severe brain injury.
This month’s issue features articles evaluating adverse events in the pediatric ICU (PICU) over a 10-year period, in-hospital cardiac arrests in adults admitted to PICUs, and disease severity trends of SARS-CoV-2 in U.S. PICUs. Two articles discuss prevalence and readmission rates of discharge directly home from the PICU. Other articles focus on goals of care and end of life, including different types of communication and prognostic statements, identification of medical complexity, and end-of-life issues in patients with ventricular assist devices. Additional clinical investigations and brief reports explore in situ simulation of a new critical care unit, pharmacokinetic modeling of midazolam and pentobarbital use in refractory status epilepticus, and the use of steroids in the general PICU population. Online review articles explore antimicrobial stewardship programs and strategies to reduce iatrogenic blood loss in critically ill patients.
This month’s issue features articles on a variety of sepsis and shock topics as well as challenges with mechanical ventilation in pediatric patients. The neurocritical intensive care articles evaluate phenotypes in acute brainstem dysfunction and the use of a pediatric neurocritical care team for patients with status epilepticus. Several online clinical investigations and brief reports explore mitigation of nephrotoxic pain medications, application of new acute kidney injury criteria, use of esmolol after tetralogy of Fallot repair, risk of infection development with proton pump inhibitor use, outcomes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and cytokine release syndrome after chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, and an article discussing bereaved caregiver perspectives on end-of-life care in pediatric patients with ventricular assist devices.
This month’s issue features articles on evaluating the use of calcium during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in children with heart disease, assessing moral distress in the pediatric ICU, examining the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in children with neurologic disorders or neurofunctional disability, and creating core outcome measurement sets for pediatric critical care patients. Additional articles describe clinical investigations about cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality and outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and centralizing pediatric critical care in Australia and New Zealand. The neurocritical care article examines the utility of high-dose midazolam in pediatric refractory status epilepticus, and there are a couple of articles evaluating the use of antifibrinolytics in pediatric trauma and cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. We wrap up with this month's narrative, which focuses on stress and burnout in pediatric critical care.
This month’s issue features articles on delirium in the pediatric ICU and its impact on pediatric ICU readmission within one year, the use of prophylactic enoxaparin against catheter-associated thrombosis in postoperative cardiac patients, and outcomes associated with sodium bicarbonate use during pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest. Other articles in this month’s issue investigate children with cardiac disease; one focuses on outcomes with early peritoneal dialysis cardiac surgery, another evaluates a treatment algorithm to mitigate bleeding in children with acquired von Willebrand syndrome type 2A, and another assesses a method to predict use of critical resources after cardiac catheterization. There are several other interesting articles on topics such as respiratory failure, functional status outcomes, optimal epinephrine dose during cardiac arrest, and anticoagulation with ventricular assist devices.
This month’s issue features articles on utilization of neurocritical resources in critically ill children, examination of early administration of corticosteroids in septic shock and association with clinically meaningful outcomes, and evaluation of increased monocyte distribution width in children with systemic inflammatory response syndrome and sepsis. There are also interesting articles on transport medicine, tracheostomy placement in children with pulmonary hypertension, prevention of clots in patients with modified Blalock-Taussig shunts, parental experience in the pediatric ICU, and semiautomated regional citrate anticoagulation in chronic kidney replacement therapy. Finally, there is a compelling narrative on the complex decision of extracorporeal membrane oxygen candidacy in critically ill children and the need for a systematic approach.
This month’s issue features articles on assessing physical, emotional/behavioral, and neurocognitive developmental outcomes in children after pediatric ICU admission, neurologic dysfunction relative to timing of recognition of pediatric sepsis, and using social determinants of health to identify neighborhoods where children are at risk for acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. Additionally, there are interesting articles assessing peripheral vasoactive infusions in children with shock, an article investigating pathogen type and outcomes of septic shock, and a comparison of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children with original/alpha versus delta variants of COVID-19.
This month’s Pediatric Critical Care Medicine features articles on assessing the epidemiology of pediatric intensive care unit admissions over a five-year period, the prevalence of cardiac dysfunction in Malawian children with severe febrile illness, and outcomes with conservative fluid management strategies in septic shock in African children. Additionally, there are a few articles on acute kidney injury, perioperative intensive care for patients with congenital heart disease, and acute respiratory distress syndrome.