Merging Two Hospitals: The Effects on Pediatric Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Outcomes.

In this article, a retrospective study was performed to describe the impact of merging two pediatric intensive care units on the overall and neurocognitive outcomes of children who required extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR). Results from three cohorts were compared: 2008 to 2014: premerge, 2014 to 2017: initial time period postmerge, and 2018 to 2019: established merge. Survival to hospital discharge (and with good neurological outcome) was of 68% (61%), 46% (36%), and 79% (71%), respectively, for the three time periods. Merging two hospitals resulted in a nonsignificant trend toward temporary worse outcomes in pediatric patients requiring ECPR.

0.9% Sodium chloride solution versus Plasma-Lyte 148 versus compound sodium lacTate solution in children admitted to PICU-a randomized controlled trial (SPLYT-P): study protocol for an intravenous fluid therapy trial.

BACKGROUND: Intravenous fluid therapy represents the most common intervention critically ill patients are exposed to. Hyperchloremia and metabolic acidosis associated with 0.9% sodium chloride have been observed to lead to worse outcomes, including mortality. Balanced solutions, such as Plasma-Lyte 148 and Compound Sodium Lactate, represent potential alternatives but the evidence on optimal fluid choices in critically ill children remains scarce. This study aims to demonstrate whether balanced solutions, when used as intravenous fluid therapy, are able to reduce the incidence of a rise in serum chloride level compared to 0.9% sodium chloride in critically ill children. METHODS: This is a single-centre, open-label randomized controlled trial with parallel 1:1:1 assignment into three groups: 0.9% sodium chloride, Plasma-Lyte 148, and Compound Sodium Lactate solutions for intravenous fluid therapy. The intervention includes both maintenance and bolus fluid therapy. Children aged < 16 years admitted to intensive care and receiving intravenous fluid therapy during the first 4 h of admission are eligible. The primary outcome measure is a ≥ 5mmol/L increase in serum chloride level within 48 h post-randomization. The enrolment target is 480 patients. The main analyses will be intention-to-treat. DISCUSSION: This study tests three types of intravenous fluid therapy in order to compare the risk of hyperchloremia associated with normal saline versus balanced solutions. This pragmatic study is thereby assessing the most common intervention in paediatric critical care. This is a single-centre open-label study with no blinding at the level of delivery of the intervention. Certain paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patient groups such as those admitted with a cardiac condition or following a traumatic brain injury are excluded from this study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study has received ethical approval (HREC/19/QCHQ/53177: 06/06/2019). It is registered in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ( ACTRN12619001244190 ) from 9th September 2019. Recruitment commenced on 12th November 2019. The primary results manuscript will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Prediction of outcomes of extremely low gestational age newborns in Australia and New Zealand.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the accuracy of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) calculator in predicting death and neurodevelopmental impairment in Australian and New Zealand infants. DESIGN: Population-based cohort study. SETTING: Australia and New Zealand. PATIENTS: Preterm infants 22-25 completed weeks gestation. INTERVENTIONS: Comparison of NICHD calculator predicted rates of death and death or neurodevelopmental impairment, with actual rates recorded in the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network cohort. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Infant death and death or neurodevelopmental impairment rates. RESULTS: A total of 714 infants were included in the study. Of these infants, 100 (14.0%) were <24 weeks, 389 (54.5%) male, 529 (74.1%) were singletons, 42 (5.9%) had intrauterine growth restriction, 563 (78.9%) received antenatal steroids and 625 (87.5 %) were born in a tertiary hospital. There were 288 deaths (40.3%), 75 infants (10.5%) with neurodevelopment impairment and 363 (50.8%) with death or neurodevelopmental impairment. The area under the curve (AUC) for prediction of death and the composite death or neurodevelopmental impairment by the NICHD calculator in our population was 0.65(95% CI 0.61 to 0.69) and 0.65 (95% CI 0.61 to 0.69), respectively. When stratified and compared with gestational age outcomes, the AUC did not change substantially for the outcomes investigated. The calculator was less accurate with outcome predictions at the extreme categories of predicted outcomes-underestimation of outcomes for those predicted to have the lowest risk (<20%) and overestimation for those in the highest risk category (>80%). CONCLUSION: In our recent cohort of extremely preterm infants, the NICHD model does not accurately predict outcomes and is marginally better than gestational age based outcomes.