Patterns of paediatric massive blood transfusion protocol use in trauma and non-trauma patients.

BACKGROUND: Massive blood transfusion is infrequently required by children but can be a lifesaving intervention for haemorrhage or coagulopathy. Product volumes and ratios administered during the initiation of paediatric massive blood transfusion protocol (MBTP) are highly variable and the optimal component ratio is unknown. METHODS/MATERIALS: We performed a single-centre retrospective chart review of patients (<20 years) who received MBTP activation from August 2012 through January 2018. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between MBTP use characteristics (including blood product type and volume transfused, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation [ECMO] support, and cardiac arrest occurrence) and 24-h mortality. "Low" product ratio was defined as a ratio of plasma or platelets to red blood cells (RBCs) of <1:2 and "high" as ≥1:2. RESULTS: Ninety-eight MBTPs were activated for 89 patients (range 1-4 per patient). The most common underlying diagnoses were congenital heart disease (CHD, n = 28, 31.5%), followed by cardiopulmonary disease, and trauma. CHD patients required the greatest volume of RBCs (226.3 ml/kg, 95%CI [160.0, 292.7], p = 0.002) and platelets (46.7 ml/kg, 95%CI [33.2, 60.2], p < 0.001). A "low" product ratio was more common for the MBTP, with its incidence similar among the underlying diagnoses. CONCLUSION: An MBTP developed for trauma patients can be applied to non-trauma patients but standard MBTP components may not be optimal for all children. These findings show that underlying patient diagnoses may be a factor when designing an MBTP for a heterogeneous paediatric population.

Periocular Facial Scald Burns in Children: Is Ophthalmology Consultation Necessary?

OBJECTIVES: Criteria that predict the need for ocular injury treatment in children who suffer periocular facial scald burns are not known. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence and management of ocular injuries among children sustaining facial scald burns and to determine predictors of injuries requiring additional treatment. METHODS: Children treated at a burn center with periocular facial scald burns were analyzed. Patient and injury profiles were compared between those evaluated and not evaluated by an ophthalmologist. Factors associated with an ocular injury requiring treatment were determined, and treatment differences before and after ophthalmology consultation were evaluated. RESULTS: Seventy-three children with facial scald burns were identified, none with a full-thickness injury. Thirteen children had ocular findings on examination including corneal abrasion, conjunctivitis, scleral burn, and chemosis of the conjunctiva. Twenty-three patients received erythromycin ointment, only 8 of whom had a documented ocular injury. Children seen by an ophthalmologist (n = 24) more often had a positive finding on examination (37.5% vs 8.2%, P = 0.007) and received treatment (66.7% vs 14.3%, P < 0.001). Only 4 patients had modification in their treatment plan after consultation, 3 of whom were started on treatment despite not having a positive finding on examination. CONCLUSIONS: Ocular injury after periocular facial scald burns is an infrequent finding. Among children with partial-thickness periocular facial scald burns, initial evaluation and treatment without ophthalmology consultation are appropriate. Ophthalmic antibiotic ointment is an appropriate initial treatment in most symptomatic patients, with ophthalmologic consultation being limited to children without symptomatic improvement.

Mode of Transport and Trauma Activation Status in Admitted Pediatric Trauma Patients.

BACKGROUND: Injured children who arrive by self-transport to the emergency department (ED) may receive delayed or inadequate care. We studied differences in demographics, clinical characteristics, and trauma activation status for admitted pediatric trauma patients based on arrival by self-transport or Emergency Medical Services (EMS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study at two level I pediatric trauma centers. INCLUSION CRITERIA: <15 y old with blunt or penetrating injury. We used univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to determine associations between trauma activation, ED length of stay (LOS), and hospital LOS with demographic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: We identified 1161 patients: 40.1% arrived by self-transport and 59.9% by EMS. Self-transport patients were less likely to have an abnormal Glasgow Coma Scale score < 15 (2.1% versus 22.0%, P < 0.001) and Injury Severity Score > 15 (2.4% versus 11.7%, P < 0.001). Trauma activation was initiated in 52.5% of patients, occurring less often in self-transport than EMS patients (2.4% versus 86.2%, P < 0.001). Trauma activation rate was negatively associated with arrival by self-transport (odds ratio [OR] 0.001, 95% CI 0.00-0.003), positively associated with Glasgow Coma Scale <15 (OR 25.9, 95% CI 6.6-101.2) and site (OR 15.4, 95% CI 6.3-37.5) but not with Injury Severity Score >15 (OR 2.8, 95% CI 0.8-9.2). Self-transport arrival was associated with longer ED LOS (estimated regression slope 0.47, 95% CI 0.13-0.82). CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of admitted pediatric trauma patients arrived by self-transport; however, trauma team activation rarely occurs for these patients. Trauma team activation may be underutilized in self-transport patients with injuries resulting in hospital admission.

Association Between Prearrival Notification Time and Advanced Trauma Life Support Protocol Adherence.

BACKGROUND: Prearrival notification of injured patients facilitates preparation of personnel, equipment, and other resources needed for trauma evaluation and treatment. Our purpose was to determine the impact of prearrival notification time on adherence to Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) protocols. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pediatric trauma activations of admitted patients were analyzed by video review to determine activities performed before and after patient arrival. Using an expert model based on ATLS, fitness scores were calculated that represented model adherence, ranging from "0" (noncompliant) to "100" (completely compliant). Multivariate regression was used to determine the association between fitness values of the evaluation phases and the length of prearrival notification time and injury profiles. RESULTS: Ninety-four patients met study criteria. The average overall fitness was 89.0 ± 7.3, with similar fitness values being observed for the primary and secondary surveys (91.5 ± 13.4 and 88.6 ± 7.7, respectively). Prearrival notification time ranged from 67.3 min before to 4.8 min after patient arrival. Longer prearrival notification time was associated with improved completion of prearrival tasks, overall resuscitation performance, and secondary survey performance. The positive association of overall and secondary survey fitness with notification time was no longer observed when notification time was <5 min and <10 min, respectively. Notification time was correlated with a higher percentage of required team members when the patient arrived (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.46, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Prearrival notification time has a significant impact on adherence to ATLS protocol. Strategies for improving notification time or improving performance when adequate notification cannot be achieved are needed.

Errors in cervical spine immobilization during pediatric trauma evaluation.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to identify factors during trauma evaluation that increase the likelihood of errors in cervical spine immobilization ('lapses'). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Multivariate analysis was used to identify the associations between patient characteristics, event features, and tasks performed in proximity to the head and neck and the occurrence and duration of a lapse in maintaining cervical spine immobilization during 56 pediatric trauma evaluations. RESULTS: Lapses in cervical spine immobilization occurred in 71.4% of patients (n = 40), with an average of 1.2 ± 1.3 lapses per patient. Head and neck tasks classified as oxygen manipulation occurred an average of 12.2 ± 9.7 times per patient, whereas those related to neck examination and cervical collar manipulation occurred an average of 2.7 ± 1.7 and 2.1 ± 1.2 times per patient, respectively. More oxygen-related tasks were performed among patients who had than those who did not have a lapse (27.3 ± 16.5 versus 11.5 ± 8.0 tasks, P = 0.001). Patients who had cervical collar placement or manipulation had a two-fold higher risk of a lapse than those who did not have these tasks performed (OR 1.92, 95% CI 0.56, 3.28, P = 0.006). More lapses occurred during evaluations on the weekend (P = 0.01), when more tasks related to supplemental oxygen manipulation were performed (P = 0.02) and when more tasks associated with cervical collar management were performed (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Errors in cervical spine immobilization were frequently observed during the initial evaluation of injured children. Strategies to reduce these errors should target approaches to head and neck management during the primary and secondary phases of trauma evaluation.

An approach to automatic process deviation detection in a time-critical clinical process.

MOTIVATION: Prior research has shown that minor errors and deviations from recommended guidelines in complex medical processes can accumulate to increase the likelihood that a major error will go uncorrected and lead to an adverse outcome. Real-time automatic and accurate detection of process deviations may help medical teams better prevent or mitigate the effect of errors and improve patient outcomes. Our goal was to develop an approach for automatic detection of errors and process deviations in trauma resuscitation. METHODS: Using video review, we coded activity traces of 95 pediatric trauma resuscitations collected in a Level 1 trauma center over two years (2014-2016). Twenty-four randomly selected activity traces were compared with a knowledge-driven model of trauma resuscitation workflow using a phase-based conformance checking algorithm for detecting true and false deviations (alarms). An analysis of false alarms identified three types of causes: (1) model gaps or discrepancies between the model ("work as imagined") and actual practice ("work as done"), (2) errors in activity traces coding, and (3) algorithm limitations. We repaired the system to remove model gaps, reduce coding errors, and address algorithm limitations. The repaired system was first evaluated with another 20 traces and then applied to the entire dataset of 95 traces. RESULTS: During the training, we detected 573 process deviations in 24 activity traces that include 1099 activities. Among these deviations, only 27% represented true deviations and the remaining 73% were false alarms. This initial deviation detection accuracy was only 66.6%, with a F1-score of 0.42. Detection accuracy of the repaired system increased to 95.2% (0.85 F1-score) during system validation and to 98.5% (0.96 F1-score) during testing. After deploying the repaired deviation detection system to all 95 activity traces, we detected 1060 process deviations in 5659 activities (11.2 deviations per resuscitation). Among the 5659 activities in these traces, 4893 fit the repaired knowledge-driven workflow model, 294 were errors of omission, 538 were errors of commission, and 228 were scheduling errors. CONCLUSION: Our approach to automatic deviation detection provides a method for identifying repeated, omitted and out-of-sequence activities that can be included in the design of decision support systems for complex medical processes. Our findings show the importance of assessing detected deviations for repairing a knowledge-driven model that best represents "work as done."

Pediatric Treadmill Friction Burns to the Hand: Outcomes of an Initial Nonoperative Approach.

Treadmill burns that occur from friction mechanism are a common cause of hand burns in children. These burns are deeper and more likely to require surgical intervention compared to hand burns from other mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with healing time using an initial nonoperative approach. A retrospective chart review was performed examining children (<15 years) who were treated for treadmill burns to the hand between 2012 and 2019. Patient age, burn depth, total body surface area of the hand injury, and time to healing were recorded. Topical wound management strategies (silver sheet, silver cream, non-silver sheet, and non-silver cream) and associated treatment durations were determined. For patients with burns to bilateral hands, the features, treatment, and outcomes of each hand were assessed separately. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between time to healing and patient characteristics and treatment type. Seventy-seven patients with 86 hand burns (median age 3 years, range 1-11) had a median total body surface area per hand burn of 0.8% (range 0.1-1.5%). Full-thickness burns (n = 47, 54.7%) were associated with longer time to healing compared to partial-thickness burns (HR 0.28, CI 0.15-0.54, P < .001). Silver sheet treatment was also associated with more rapid time to healing compared to treatment with a silver cream (HR 2.64, CI 1.01-6.89, P = .047). Most pediatric treadmill burns can be managed successfully with a nonoperative approach. More research is needed to confirm the superiority of treatment with silver sheets compared to treatment with silver creams.

Change in functional status among children treated in the intensive care unit after injury.

BACKGROUND: Because pediatric trauma-related mortality continues to decline, metrics assessing morbidity are needed to evaluate the impact of treatment after injury. Based on its value for assessing children with traumatic brain injuries and other critical illnesses, Functional Status Scale (FSS), a tool that measures function in six domains (communication, feeding, mental, motor, sensory, and respiratory), was evaluated as an outcome measure for the overall population of injured children. METHODS: Children with at least one injury (Abbreviated Injury Scale [AIS] severity ≥1) surviving to discharge between December 2011 and April 2013 were identified in a previous study of intensive care unit admissions. Morbidity was defined as additional morbidity in any domain (domain FSS change ≥2 or 'new domain morbidity') and additional overall morbidity (total FSS change ≥3) between preinjury status and discharge. Associations between injury profiles and the development of morbidity were analyzed. RESULTS: We identified 553 injured children, with a mean of 2.0 ± 1.9 injuries. New domain and overall morbidity were observed in 17.0% and 11.0% of patients, respectively. New domain morbidity was associated with an increasing number of body regions with an injury with AIS ≥ 2 (p < 0.001), with severe (AIS ≥ 4) head (p = 0.04) and spine (p = 0.01) injuries and with at moderately severe (AIS ≥ 2) lower extremity injuries (p = 0.01). New domain morbidity was more common among patients with severe spine and lower extremity injuries (55.6% and 48.7%, respectively), with greatest impact in the motor domain (55.6% and 43.6%, respectively). New domain morbidity was associated with increasing injury severity score, number of moderately severe injuries and number of body regions with more than a moderately severe injury (p < 0.001 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Higher morbidity measured by the FSS is associated with increasing injury severity. These findings support the use of the FSS as a metric for assessing outcome after pediatric injury. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic/Epidemiologic, level III.

Process Mining the Trauma Resuscitation Patient Cohorts.

In this study, we present a framework for analyzing associations between patient cohorts and the trauma resuscitation procedures their patients received. Our framework works by quantifying associations between discovered patient cohorts and treatment patterns. We evaluated our framework on a trauma resuscitation dataset collected in a level 1 trauma center. Our experimental results show that using weights learned by our algorithm improves measurements of patient similarity. Four patient cohorts were then found via clustering, and statistically significant resuscitation patterns were discovered using process mining techniques. Though only tested on the trauma resuscitation process, our framework can be generalized to analyze other medical processes.

Management Issues in Critically Ill Pediatric Patients with Trauma.

The management of critically ill pediatric patients with trauma poses many challenges because of the infrequency and diversity of severe injuries and a paucity of high-level evidence to guide care for these uncommon events. This article discusses recent recommendations for early resuscitation and blood component therapy for hypovolemic pediatric patients with trauma. It also highlights the specific types of injuries that lead to severe injury in children and presents challenges related to their management.