PCCM Audio Summary - September 2026

The September 2026 issue of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) features original research articles that cover the use of urinary neutrophil gelatinase‒associated lipocalin in acute kidney injury, healthcare professionals’ perceptions of unmet needs and modifiable barriers affecting end-of-life care in the pediatric critical care unit (PICU), the Phoenix Sepsis Score to perform risk stratification for patients with sepsis in a South African PICU, and platelet transfusion practices in critically ill children. Clinical investigation articles review a variety of topics, including sibling visits for PICU patients, cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy parameters for moderate-to-severe brain injury in neonates on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), practice variation in caring for patients with critical pertussis, risk stratification for critically ill patients with complex chronic conditions, recruitment maneuvers used during invasive mechanical ventilation, and piperacillin population pharmacokinetics in critically ill children on ECMO. Two PCCM trials are highlighted in this issue: the first is a re-analysis of previous trials to estimate individualized treatment effects of hypothermia versus normothermia after cardiac arrest, and the other describes the prespecified statistical analysis plan for the GASTRIC-PICU trial, which will assess noninferiority of no routine gastric residual volume measurements in PICU patients. There are also two PCCM narratives this month.

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