PCCM Audio Summary - August 2026
The August 2026 issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) features three original research articles that describe interprofessional staffing in U.S. pediatric critical care units (PICUs) based on the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations, use of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for in-hospital cardiac arrest in the emergency department, and standardizing handoff for interfacility transfers from frontline settings to the PICU using the I-PASS method. Three clinical investigation articles involve extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) topics, including 1) implementing a progressive early mobility protocol in ECMO, 2) arrhythmias and associated outcomes during pediatric cardiac ECMO support, and 3) diagnostic performance of laboratory markers to indicate the presence of infection in ECMO patients. The other clinical investigations compare child opportunity index and readmission in children treated with tracheostomy and long-term mechanical ventilation, and examine the use of minimally invasive cardiac output monitoring in adolescents undergoing cardiac catheterization. The PCCM trial assesses the feasibility of a randomized controlled trial of restrictive versus standard care intravenous fluids in PICU patients.
