Risk Factors for Recurrent Acute Kidney Injury in Children Who Undergo Multiple Cardiac Surgeries: A Retrospective Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Determine the risk factors for repeated episodes of acute kidney injury in children who undergo multiple cardiac surgical procedures. DESIGN: Single-center retrospective chart review. SETTING: Cardiac ICU at a quaternary pediatric care center. PATIENTS: Birth to 18 years who underwent at least two cardiac surgical procedures with cardiopulmonary bypass. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: One-hundred eighty patients underwent two cardiac surgical procedures and 89 underwent three. Acute kidney injury was defined by the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes serum creatinine criteria. Acute kidney injury frequency was 26% (n = 46) after surgery 1, 20% (n = 36) after surgery 2, and 24% (n = 21) after surgery 3, with most acute kidney injury occurring on postoperative days 1 and 2. The proportion of patients with severe acute kidney injury increased from surgery 1 to surgery 3. Patients with acute kidney injury had a significantly longer duration of ventilation and length of stay after each surgery. The odds of acute kidney injury after surgery 3 was 2.40 times greater if acute kidney injury was present after surgery 1 or 2 (95% CI, 1.26-4.56; p = 0.008) after adjusting for confounders. The time between surgeries was not significantly associated with acute kidney injury (p = 0.85). CONCLUSIONS: In a heterogeneous population of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease undergoing multiple cardiopulmonary bypass surgeries, odds of acute kidney injury after a third surgery was increased by the presence of acute kidney injury after prior procedures. Time between surgery did not play a role in increasing odds of acute kidney injury. Further studies in a larger multicenter investigation are necessary to confirm these findings.

The Cumulative Incidence of Pouchitis in Pediatric Patients With Ulcerative Colitis.

BACKGROUND: Despite highly effective therapies, many children develop medically refractory ulcerative colitis (UC) and undergo proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA). We sought to determine the incidence, risk, and burden of pouchitis in the first 2 years following the final stage of IPAA in pediatric UC patients. METHODS: Within the IQVIA Legacy PharMetrics Adjudicated Claims Database, we identified pediatric patients with UC who underwent proctocolectomy with IPAA between January 1, 2007, and June 30, 2015. We utilized International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification or International Classification of Diseases-Tenth Revision-Clinical Modification codes to identify patients with UC and Current Procedural Terminology codes to identify colectomy and IPAA. Continuous variables were compared using t tests and Wilcoxon rank sum testing, while categorical variables were compared using chi-square testing. RESULTS: A total of 68 patients with an IPAA were identified. In the first 2 years following IPAA, the cumulative incidence of pouchitis was 54%. Patients with pouchitis required more outpatient visits in the first 2 years after IPAA (mean 21.8 vs 10.2; P = .006) and were more likely to be hospitalized compared with patients without pouchitis (46% vs 23%; P = .045). Patients with pouchitis also demonstrated higher mean total costs in year 1 and year 2 ($27 489 vs $8032 [P = .001] and $27 699 vs $6058 [P = .003], respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm the high incidence of pouchitis demonstrated in earlier single-center studies of pediatric patients undergoing proctocolectomy with IPAA for UC. Identification of risk factors for pouchitis would be useful to optimize early intervention.

Among a geographically diverse patient population from the United States, we demonstrated that over half of pediatric patients undergoing proctocolectomy with ileal pouch­anal anastomosis for ulcerative colitis will develop pouchitis in the first 2 years after surgery.

Peripheral eosinophilia and hypoalbuminemia are associated with a higher biopsy diagnostic yield for eosinophilic gastroenteritis.

BACKGROUND: Gastric and duodenal mucosa may appear normal in eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EGE). Adult gastroenterologists typically biopsy only in the setting of mucosal abnormalities or symptoms, while pediatric providers biopsy all patients. The biopsy yield of EGE has not been adequately evaluated. AIMS: To evaluate the biopsy yield of EGE in a pediatric cohort and assess predictors of increased biopsy yield. METHODS: We identified patients age 0-18 who underwent upper endoscopy. We recorded endoscopic findings, pathology, demographics, and clinical and laboratory characteristics. We identified EGE cases (>20 eosinophils per high-power field on stomach and/or duodenum biopsy). We compared characteristics between EGE and non-EGE cases, calculated biopsy diagnostic yield, and performed multivariate analysis for predictors of increased biopsy yield. RESULTS: In 509 patients (55.6% female, mean age 10.3 years, 69.7% white, 58.7% atopic), biopsy diagnostic yield for EGE was 1.2% (6/509) among all subjects, 7.7% (3/39) for those with peripheral eosinophilia (≥500 eos/uL), 9.1% (3/33) for those with hypoalbuminemia (<3.5 g/dL), and 25.0% (3/12) for those with peripheral eosinophilia and hypoalbuminemia. The odds of EGE were 27.8 (95% CI 3.3-231.8) times greater among those with peripheral eosinophilia. The mean total biopsy surface area and number of fragments was similar between patients with and without EGE. The area under the ROC curve for blood eosinophil counts and albumin level for predicting EGE was 0.926. CONCLUSIONS: The biopsy diagnostic yield for EGE is low but increases with peripheral eosinophilia and hypoalbuminemia. Patients with these features should have biopsies obtained, regardless of endoscopic appearance.

Timing and Duration of Sleep in Hospitalized Children: An Observational Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sleep during hospitalization is important, but data on children's sleep quality during hospitalization are lacking. We sought to document sleep duration and awakenings in hospitalized children and explore associations between sleep and chronic care complexity, home sleep quality, and late-night food consumption. METHODS: Children aged 2 to 17 years admitted to a hospitalist service for at least 24 hours were approached for participation. Children were video recorded from 20:00 to 08:00. Paired investigators reviewed recordings and extracted data. Investigators blinded to sleep data separately extracted clinical and demographic information. Analyses included Spearman correlations and linear and generalized linear regression models with t and Wald χ2 tests. RESULTS: The mean time subjects (n = 57) initiated sleep was 22:35 (range: 20:00-02:47), with a mean sleep duration of 475 minutes (89-719 minutes). Subjects awakened 2.2 times (0-7 times, SD: 1.9) per night, on average, with the average total time awake during those awakenings of 55.7 minutes (2-352 minutes, SD: 75 minutes). In multivariate analysis, children with private insurance had longer sleep duration. Additionally, subjects who ate a snack after 21:00 went to sleep much later (odds ratio: 9.5; confidence interval: 2.6 to 34.9) and had 64 minutes less total sleep time and spent less time in bed than patients who did not eat late (P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalized children sleep less than recommended and experience frequent awakenings. Some demographic variables are related to sleep. Many hospitalized children also consume food at night, which is associated with later bedtime and less sleep. Future efforts to improve sleep in hospitalized children are needed.