Paediatric intensive care 'do not do' recommendations in Spain: Selection by Delphi method.

INTRODUCTION: Health care is not free of ineffective, unsafe or inefficient diagnostic and therapeutic practices. To address this, different scientific societies and health authorities have proposed 'do not do' recommendations (DNDRs). Our goal was the selection by consensus of a set of DNDRs for paediatric intensive care in Spain. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The research was carried out in 2 phases: first, gathering potential DNDRs; second, selecting the most important ones, using the Delphi method, based on the prevalence of the practice to be modified, the severity of its potential risks and the ease with which it could be modified. Proposals and evaluations were both made by members of working groups of the Sociedad Española de Cuidados Intensivos Pediátricos (SECIP, Spanish Society of Paediatric Intensive Care), coordinated by email. The initial set of DNDRs was reduced based on the coefficient of variation (<80%) of the corresponding evaluations. RESULTS: A total of 182 DNDRs were proposed by 30 intensivists. The 14 Delphi evaluators managed to pare down the initial set to 85 DNDRs and, after a second round, to the final set of 26 DNDRs. The care quality dimensions most represented in the final set are clinical effectiveness and patient safety. CONCLUSIONS: This study allowed the selection by consensus of a series of recommendations to avoid unsafe, inefficient or ineffective practices in paediatric intensive care in Spain, which could be useful for improving the quality of clinical care in our field.

Pre-operative anxiolysis in children through a combined pharmacological therapy with hydroxyzine and a non-pharmacological distraction technique with a clown (SONRISA): study protocol for randomised double-blind clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Surgery can generate significant stress and anxiety in up to 70% of the paediatric population. There are several pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies to reduce pre-operative anxiety in children, however, they have several side effects and the available information about them is contradictory. The role of clowns and hydroxyzine in the management of anxiety is controversial, with some studies supporting and others contraindicating both strategies. METHODS: We propose a randomised double-blind, controlled clinical trial that will evaluate the effectiveness of both interventions (hydroxyzine and clowns), alone or in combination, to reduce pre-operative anxiety (using the modified Yale scale of preoperative anxiety) in children aged 2-16 years undergoing outpatient surgery (n = 188). Subjects will be randomised into two groups - (1) standard procedure (parental accompaniment) combined with placebo or (2) standard procedure combined with preoperative hydroxyzine. After randomisation, they will be divided by chance into two further groups, depending on the presence of clowns on the patient's surgery day. Control of pre-operative anxiety will be determined in the four groups by a modified Yale scale of preoperative anxiety and cortisol levels. Compliance of children during induction of anaesthesia, time until anaesthesia recovery, presence of postoperative delirium and use of analgesia until discharge will be also assessed. For additional information, the children, parents and healthcare professionals involved in the study will complete a satisfaction survey. CONCLUSIONS: This study aims to gather evidence on which of these four therapeutic options achieves the highest reduction of pre-operative anxiety with the best safety profile to allow paediatricians and anaesthesiologists to use the most effective and safe option for their patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03324828. Registered 21 September 2017.

Set of Quality Indicators of Pediatric Intensive Care in Spain: Delphi Method Selection.

INTRODUCTION: This study objective was to identify, select, and define a basic set of quality indicators for pediatric intensive care in Spain. METHODS: (1) Review of the literature to identify quality indicators and their defining elements and (2) selection of indicators by consensus of a group of experts using basic Delphi methodology (2 rounds) and forms distributed by email among experts from the Spanish society of pediatric intensive care. RESULTS: We selected quality indicators according to their relevance and feasibility and the experts' agreement on their incorporation in the final set. We included only those indicators whose assessment was within the highest tertile and greater than or equal to 70% evaluator agreement in the final selection. Starting from an initially proposed set of 136 indicators, 31 experts first selected 43 indicators for inclusion in the second round. Twenty indicators were selected for the final set. This "top 20" set comprised 9 process indicators, 9 of results (especially treatment-associated adverse effects), and 2 indicators of structure. Several of them are classical indicators in intensive care medicine (rates of hospital-acquired infections, pressure ulcers, etc.), whereas others are specifically pediatric (eg, unrestricted parent visitation or training the parents of technology-dependent children). CONCLUSIONS: We reached a consensus on a set of 20 essential quality indicators for pediatric intensive care in Spain. A significant subset reflects the peculiarities of pediatric care. We consider this subset as a starting point for future projects of network collaboration between pediatric intensive care units in Spain.

Prospective Multicentre Study on the Epidemiology and Current Therapeutic Management of Severe Bronchiolitis in Spain.

Objective. To determine the epidemiology and therapeutic management of patients with severe acute bronchiolitis (AB) admitted to paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in Spain. Design. Descriptive, prospective, multicentre study. Setting. Sixteen Spanish PICUs. Patients. Patients with severe AB who required admission to any of the participating PICUs over 1 year. Interventions. Both epidemiological variables and medical treatment received were recorded. Results. A total of 262 patients were recruited; 143 were male (54.6%), with median age of 1 month (0-23). Median stay in the PICU was 7 days (1-46). Sixty patients (23%) received no nebuliser treatment, while the rest received a combination of inhalation therapies. One-quarter of patients (24.8%) received corticosteroids and 56.5% antibiotic therapy. High-flow oxygen therapy was used in 14.3% and noninvasive ventilation (NIV) was used in 75.6%. Endotracheal intubation was required in 24.4% of patients. Younger age, antibiotic therapy, and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) were risk factors that significantly increased the stay in the PICU. Conclusions. Spanish PICUs continue to routinely use nebulised bronchodilator treatment and corticosteroid therapy. Despite NIV being widely used in this condition, intubation was required in one-quarter of cases. Younger age, antibiotic therapy, and IMV were associated with a longer stay in the PICU.