CARPEDIEM® for continuous kidney replacement therapy in neonates and small infants: a French multicenter retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: The Cardio-Renal Pediatric Dialysis Emergency Machine (CA.R.P.E.D.I.E.M.®) device is a continuous kidney replacement therapy (CKRT) equipment dedicated to neonates and small infants. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness, feasibility, outcomes, and technical considerations relating to CARPEDIEM® use. METHODS: This retrospective multicenter study included 19 newborns and six infants receiving CARPEDIEM® in five French pediatric and neonatal intensive care units. Laboratory parameters were collected at the initiation and end of the first CARPEDIEM® session. Results are presented as median [IQR] (range). RESULTS: At initiation, age was 4 days [2-13] (1-1134) with a body weight of 3.3 kg [2.5-4] (1.3-11.1). Overall, 131 sessions and 2125 h of treatment were performed. Treatment duration per patient was 42 h [24-91] (8-557). Continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH) was performed in 20 children. Blood flow rate was 8 mL/kg/min [6-9] (3-16). The effluent flow rate for CVVH was 74 mL/kg/h [43-99] (28-125) and net ultrafiltration (UF) 6 mL/kg/h [2-8] (1-12). In the five children treated by hemodialysis, the blood and dialysate flow rates were 6 mL/kg/min [5-7] (4-7) and 600 mL/h [300-600] (120-600), respectively, while session duration was 8 h [6-12] (2-24). Most infants required a catheter between 4.5 and 6.5 French. Hemodynamic instability with a need for volume replacement occurred in 31 sessions (23%). Thrombocytopenia was observed in 29 sessions (22%). No hemorrhage occurred; all the patients survived the sessions, but only eight patients (32%) were alive at hospital discharge. CONCLUSIONS: These data confirm that the use of CARPEDIEM® is safe and effective in critically ill neonates and infants. A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information.

Hemolytic uremic syndrome associated with Bordetella pertussis infection in a 2-month-old infant carrying a pathogenic variant in complement factor H.

BACKGROUND: Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) has been associated with a number of infectious agents. We report here the case of an infant with severe Bordetella pertussis infection who developed HUS. CASE DIAGNOSIS/TREATMENT: A 2-month-old preterm male was admitted for severe Bordetella pertussis infection. Symptoms leading to a diagnosis of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) rapidly appeared: hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute kidney injury. He was treated with 25 days of peritoneal dialysis and received complement-targeting therapy with eculizumab (five injections over 2 months), in addition to blood transfusions, antibiotics, and respiratory support. The outcome was favorable. The genetic workup found a complement factor H gene variant which has been associated with atypical HUS. This variant was located in the C3b-binding site and functional tests revealed that it perturbed the regulatory activity of factor H. CONCLUSION: This case suggests that pertussis is a strong trigger of HUS and that complement investigations are necessary to guide treatment and understand the pathophysiology.

[The emotions of caregivers in neonatal and paediatric intensive care]. / Les émotions des soignants en réanimation néonatale et pédiatrique.

When treating a child hospitalised in a neonatal or paediatric unit, the emotions of the child's parents are of particular concern for the caregivers. The emotional experience of the nursing teams, however, is rarely taken into account, despite it having an impact on the quality of the support. Group discussion and individual reflection around professionals' emotions is essential.

Clinical practice guidelines: management of severe bronchiolitis in infants under 12 months old admitted to a pediatric critical care unit.

PURPOSE: We present guidelines for the management of infants under 12 months of age with severe bronchiolitis with the aim of creating a series of pragmatic recommendations for a patient subgroup that is poorly individualized in national and international guidelines. METHODS: Twenty-five French-speaking experts, all members of the Groupe Francophone de Réanimation et Urgence Pédiatriques (French-speaking group of paediatric intensive and emergency care; GFRUP) (Algeria, Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland), collaborated from 2021 to 2022 through teleconferences and face-to-face meetings. The guidelines cover five areas: (1) criteria for admission to a pediatric critical care unit, (2) environment and monitoring, (3) feeding and hydration, (4) ventilatory support and (5) adjuvant therapies. The questions were written in the Patient-Intervention-Comparison-Outcome (PICO) format. An extensive Anglophone and Francophone literature search indexed in the MEDLINE database via PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane and Embase was performed using pre-established keywords. The texts were analyzed and classified according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. When this method did not apply, an expert opinion was given. Each of these recommendations was voted on by all the experts according to the Delphi methodology. RESULTS: This group proposes 40 recommendations. The GRADE methodology could be applied for 17 of them (3 strong, 14 conditional) and an expert opinion was given for the remaining 23. All received strong approval during the first round of voting. CONCLUSION: These guidelines cover the different aspects in the management of severe bronchiolitis in infants admitted to pediatric critical care units. Compared to the different ways to manage patients with severe bronchiolitis described in the literature, our original work proposes an overall less invasive approach in terms of monitoring and treatment.

Patent ductus arteriosus in the preterm infant: a survey of clinical practices in French neonatal intensive care units.

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is one of the most common problems in the care of premature infants, especially the extremely premature. There is no real consensus regarding the diagnostic criteria or treatment of a hemodynamically significant PDA. Its diagnosis, assessment, and treatment still remain challenges. Therefore, we investigated clinical practices in French tertiary neonatology centers regarding the management of PDA to compare their similarities and differences. We sent a questionnaire by email to the PDA specialist in every French tertiary neonatal intensive care unit. It contained 27 items regarding the unit's structure, method of diagnosing PDA, and treatment choices. The completed questionnaire were returned via email and analyzed blindly. The questionnaire response rate was 87.5%, which allowed us to draw some conclusions regarding French clinical practices in the care of neonates with PDA. Although the diagnostic criteria are quite similar, the therapeutic practices are rather different across neonatal care units. We highlight the great variability in French clinical practices when it comes to treating PDA and underscore the necessity for harmonization of these practices, which could be achieved using multicenter, randomized studies to identify the advantages of one approach compared with another.

A multicenter randomized controlled trial of a 3-L/kg/min versus 2-L/kg/min high-flow nasal cannula flow rate in young infants with severe viral bronchiolitis (TRAMONTANE 2).

PURPOSE: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) therapy is increasingly proposed as first-line respiratory support for infants with acute viral bronchiolitis (AVB). Most teams use 2 L/kg/min, but no study compared different flow rates in this setting. We hypothesized that 3 L/kg/min would be more efficient for the initial management of these patients. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was performed in 16 pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) to compare these two flow rates in infants up to 6 months old with moderate to severe AVB and treated with HFNC. The primary endpoint was the percentage of failure within 48 h of randomization, using prespecified criteria of worsening respiratory distress and discomfort. RESULTS: From November 2016 to March 2017, 142 infants were allocated to the 2-L/kg/min (2L) flow rate and 144 to the 3-L/kg/min (3L) flow rate. Failure rate was comparable between groups: 38.7% (2L) vs. 38.9% (3L; p = 0.98). Worsening respiratory distress was the most common cause of failure in both groups: 49% (2L) vs. 39% (3L; p = 0.45). In the 3L group, discomfort was more frequent (43% vs. 16%, p = 0.002) and PICU stays were longer (6.4 vs. 5.3 days, p = 0.048). The intubation rates [2.8% (2L) vs. 6.9% (3L), p = 0.17] and durations of invasive [0.2 (2L) vs. 0.5 (3L) days, p = 0.10] and noninvasive [1.4 (2L) vs. 1.6 (3L) days, p = 0.97] ventilation were comparable. No patient had air leak syndrome or died. CONCLUSION: In young infants with AVB supported with HFNC, 3 L/kg/min did not reduce the risk of failure compared with 2 L/kg/min. This clinical trial was recorded on the National Library of Medicine registry (NCT02824744).

The importance of functional tests to assess the effect of a new CFTR variant when genotype-phenotype correlation is not possible.

In vitro functional tests aimed to investigate CFTR dysfunction appear critical to help elucidate the functional impact of new variants of uncertain clinical significance and solve inconclusive cases, especially in early deceased newborns.

Case Report of a Severe Recurrent Tongue Self-Injury in an Infant With Dystonia.

Dystonia is characterized by sustained or intermittent muscle contractions causing abnormal, often repetitive movements, postures, or both that are typically patterned, twisting, and sometimes tremulous. It is often initiated or worsened by voluntary action and associated with overflow muscle activation. In this article we report a case of severe oromandibular dystonia, which is a specific form of dystonia characterized by involuntary, action-induced tonic or clonic spasms of the masticatory, lingual, and pharyngeal musculature. Episodes of repeated tongue biting in a 17-month-old girl caused her to stay in the PICU for 4 weeks. These episodes were the consequence of dystonia induced by a perinatal stroke. We highlight the specific dental management that enabled us to treat the child without extractions. Facing this type of complex illness, we insist on the importance of interdisciplinary work with the goal of avoiding outdated techniques. The use of botulinum toxin seemed relevant.

Invasive fungal disease in PICU: epidemiology and risk factors.

Candida and Aspergillus spp. are the most common agents responsible for invasive fungal infections in children. They are associated with a high mortality and morbidity rate as well as high health care costs. An important increase in their incidence has been observed during the past two decades. In infants and children, invasive candidiasis is five times more frequent than invasive aspergillosis. Candida sp. represents the third most common agent found in healthcare-associated bloodstream infections in children. Invasive aspergillosis is more often associated with hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Recommendations concerning prophylactic treatment for invasive aspergillosis have been recently published by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Candida albicans is the main Candida sp. associated with invasive candidiasis in children, even if a strong trend toward the emergence of Candida non-albicans has been observed. The epidemiology and the risk factors for invasive fungal infections are quite different if considering previously healthy children hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit, or children with a malignancy or a severe hematological disease (leukemia). In children, the mortality rate for invasive aspergillosis is 2.5 to 3.5 higher than for invasive candidiasis (respectively 70% vs. 20% and 30%).