SARS-CoV-2-related bronchiolitis: a multicentre international study.

BACKGROUND: Bronchiolitis is the main acute lower respiratory tract infection in infants. Data regarding SARS-CoV-2-related bronchiolitis are limited. OBJECTIVE: To describe the main clinical characteristics of infants with SARS-CoV-2-related bronchiolitis in comparison with infants with bronchiolitis associated with other viruses. SETTING, PATIENTS, INTERVENTIONS: A multicentre retrospective study was conducted in 22 paediatric emergency departments (PED) in Europe and Israel. Infants diagnosed with bronchiolitis, who had a test for SARS-CoV-2 and were kept in clinical observation in the PED or admitted to hospital from 1 May 2021 to 28 February 2022 were considered eligible for participation. Demographic and clinical data, diagnostic tests, treatments and outcomes were collected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcome was the need for respiratory support in infants testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared with infants testing negative. RESULTS: 2004 infants with bronchiolitis were enrolled. Of these, 95 (4.7%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Median age, gender, weight, history of prematurity and presence of comorbidities did not differ between the SARS-CoV-2-positive and SARS-CoV-2-negative infants. Human metapneumovirus and respiratory syncytial virus were the viruses most frequently detected in the group of infants negative for SARS-CoV-2.Infants testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 received oxygen supplementation less frequently compared with SARS-CoV-2-negative patients, 37 (39%) vs 1076 (56.4%), p=0.001, OR 0.49 (95% CI 0.32 to 0.75). They received less ventilatory support: 12 (12.6%) high flow nasal cannulae vs 468 (24.5%), p=0.01; 1 (1.0%) continuous positive airway pressure vs 125 (6.6%), p=0.03, OR 0.48 (95% CI 0.27 to 0.85). CONCLUSIONS: SARS-CoV-2 rarely causes bronchiolitis in infants. SARS-CoV-2-related bronchiolitis mostly has a mild clinical course.

Nurses' Perceptions of the Quality of Procedural Sedation in Children Comparing Different Pharmacological Regimens.

Nurses play a pivotal role during pediatric procedural sedation and their perspective is an important indicator for the quality of care. The aim of this study is to examine nurses' satisfaction comparing four different pharmacological regimens used for pediatric sedation outside of the operating room. A prospective observational study was conducted in a third-level pediatric teaching hospital, involving all the nurses with experience in the field of pediatric procedural sedation. A 13-item survey was used to assess the level of nurses' satisfaction for the quality of sedation with four different analgesic-sedative drugs. Fifty-one questionnaires were completed by pediatric nurses, with a median length of experience of 10 years. Regarding the overall quality of the sedation, the highest median satisfaction scores were observed for propofol (8, IQR 7-9), dexmedetomidine (8, IQR 6-8) and midazolam (8, IQR 7-9). Ketamine (5, IQR 3-7) displayed the lowest score. When asked to rate their level of perceived safety, nurses gave high scores to all the four drugs studied, with no statistically significant difference between them. Non-pharmacological techniques during procedural sedation were judged as important by 38 (74.5%) nurses. According to this sample of pediatric nurses, the best quality of procedural sedation in children outside of the operating room is obtained with propofol, dexmedetomidine and midazolam. During procedural sedation, nurses feel safe overall, regardless of the pharmacological regimen used. Moreover, they highlighted the relevance on non-pharmacological approaches in the preparation of the child for the procedure.

Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 positivity in infants with bronchiolitis: a multicentre international study.

BACKGROUND: Bronchiolitis is the leading acute respiratory tract infection in infants during the winter season. Since the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a reduction in the number of bronchiolitis diagnoses has been registered. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to describe the incidence and clinical features of bronchiolitis during the 2020-2021 winter season in a large cohort of children in Europe and Israel, and to clarify the role of SARS-CoV-2. SETTING, PATIENTS, INTERVENTIONS: We conducted a multicentre observational cross-sectional study in 23 paediatric emergency departments in Europe and Israel. Clinical and demographic data about all the cases of infants diagnosed with bronchiolitis from 1 October 2020 to 30 April 2021 were collected. For each enrolled patient, diagnostic tests, treatments and outcomes were reported. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcome was the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2-positive bronchiolitis. RESULTS: Three hundred and fourteen infants received a diagnosis of bronchiolitis during the study period. Among 535 infants who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, 16 (3%) had bronchiolitis. Median age, male sex predominance, weight, history of prematurity and presence of comorbidities did not differ between the SARS-CoV-2-positive and SARS-CoV-2-negative groups. Rhinovirus was the most common involved pathogen, while respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was detected in one case. SARS-CoV-2 bronchiolitis had a mild clinical course, with one patient receiving oxygen supplementation and none requiring paediatric or neonatal intensive care unit admission. CONCLUSIONS: During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a marked decrease in the number of bronchiolitis diagnoses and the disappearance of the RSV winter epidemic were observed. SARS-CoV-2-related bronchiolitis was rare and mostly displayed a mild clinical course.

Acute Acalculous Cholecystitis: Think of Hepatitis A Infection and Do Not Underestimate Pain.

ABSTRACT: A 14-year-old adolescent girl presented with severe abdominal pain, tenderness, and guarding in the right upper quadrant associated with nonbilious vomiting, scleral icterus, and fever. Laboratory tests were consistent with acute hepatitis A virus-related cholestatic hepatitis. A point-of-care ultrasound showed mild gallbladder wall thickening with increased color Doppler flow and pericholecystic fluid collection, in the absence of gallstones or biliary ducts dilatation, thus suggesting acute acalculous cholecystitis. Both the clinical symptoms and the point-of-care ultrasound findings completely resolved within 1 week after admission with conservative treatment.

Unarousable child with a short bowel.

Unarousable child with short bowelA 4-year-old boy was admitted with progressive lethargy of a few hours' duration and no other symptoms. His medical history was relevant for short bowel syndrome (SBS), following neonatal volvulus, with residual bowel length of 23 cm and intact ileocecal valve. He had similar self-limiting episodes in the past, after weaning parenteral nutrition, especially after eating large meals. The day before, he had consumed a large amount of apples.Arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis showed metabolic acidosis with normal lactacidaemia (pH 7.09, pCO2 19 mm Hg, pO2 101 mm Hg, HCO3 5.8 mmol/L, BE -24, anion gap 29.4, chloride 116 mmol/L, L-lactate level 4 mmol/L).On admission, the child could be awakened, but he was confused with slurred speech (Glasgow Coma Scale 14), with a body temperature of 37 C°, a heart rate of 125 beats/min and a respiratory rate of 38 breaths/min. The abdomen was distended, without guarding and with normal bowel sounds. Blood glucose levels were normal, as well as white blood cell count, liver and kidney function test and C reactive protein. An abdominal ultrasound ruled out an intussusception. An abdominal X-ray was performed too (see figure 1).

Unilateral leg swelling in a newborn.

A female neonate was born with asymmetric lower limbs, the right leg appearing enlarged, with thickened, reddish-purple skin and ectasic superficial reticulum (figure 1A,B). Limb pulses were present and symmetrical. The girl's family history and prenatal scans were unremarkable. Laboratory findings were within the normal range, except for a mild thrombocytopenia (90 000/µL), which spontaneously resolved during the next few days. A leg X-ray and the Doppler analysis ruled out the presence of calcifications and venous varices, respectively. Ultrasound showed significant skin thickening, with marked dermal hypertrophy and hyperechogenicity. Magnetic resonance showed circumferential thickening of the derma, with mild hypertrophy of some perforating vessels (figure 2). A biopsy of the right thigh showed capillary malformations on histology.

Recovery characteristics and parental satisfaction in pediatric procedural sedation.

BACKGROUND: Despite being a standard of care for children undergoing stressful procedures, little data exist on parental perception of pediatric sedation. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate recovery characteristics and parental satisfaction for pediatric sedations performed with four widely used sedative regimens. METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted at the Institute for Maternal and Child Health of Trieste, Italy, enrolling children undergoing procedural sedation with one of the following pharmacological regimens: propofol, propofol + midazolam, ketamine + propofol, and dexmedetomidine + midazolam. A questionnaire was used to assess the occurrence of symptoms upon recovery from sedation and the following day, and the caregivers' satisfaction for both the recovery pattern and the overall sedation experience, according to a numerical rating scale (0-10). Answers were collected through a telephone survey. The primary outcome was the difference in the quality of the recovery as perceived by caregivers; the secondary and tertiary outcomes were the perceived quality of the overall sedation experience and the frequency of sedation-related adverse events, respectively. RESULTS: Data from 655 patients, 149 receiving propofol, 245 propofol + midazolam, 134 ketamine + propofol, and 127 dexmedetomidine + midazolam, were analyzed. The level of parents' satisfaction for both the recovery and the sedation experience was overall high and increased with the patients' age in all the pharmacological groups (Spearman's rank correlation, ρ .083, p = .033, and ρ .087, p = .026, respectively), with no statistically significant differences between groups when adjusting for age. The occurrence of irritability, prolonged sleepiness, hyperactivity, unsteadiness, hallucinations, emesis, and respiratory distress at any moment negatively affected parental satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, caregivers' satisfaction with pediatric sedation was high, regardless of the regimen used. Lower parental satisfaction was associated with younger age, irritability after sedation, prolonged sleepiness, hyperactivity, unsteadiness, hallucinations, emesis, and respiratory distress.

Need for pharmacological analgesia after cast immobilisation in children with bone fractures: an observational cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Bone fractures are a common reason for children and adolescents to seek evaluation in the ED. Little is known about the pain experienced after cast immobilisation and discharge from the ED and its optimal management. We aimed to investigate the administration of pharmacological analgesia in the first days after cast immobilisation and to identify possible influencing variables. METHODS: A prospective observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the ED of the children's hospital, Institute for Maternal and Child Health of Trieste, Italy, from October 2019 to June 2020. Patients aged 0-17 years with bone fractures were included. The primary outcome was the administration of analgesia during the 10 days following discharge, while secondary outcomes were the associated variables, including age, gender, fracture type and location, the mean limitation in usual activities and the frequency of re-evaluation at the ED for pain. Data were recorded through a questionnaire, completed by caregivers and collected by the researchers mainly through a telephone interview. The primary endpoint was evaluated as the ratio between the number of children who took at least one analgesic dose and the total enrolled children, while Χ2 or Fisher's exact tests were used to assess secondary outcomes. RESULTS: During the study period, 213 patients, mean age 10 years (IQR: 8-13), were enrolled. Among them, 137 (64.3%) did not take any analgesic during follow-up. Among children who were administered analgesia, 22 (28.9%) received it only on the first day, and 47 (61.8%) for less than 5 days. One hundred and sixty one patients (75.6%) did not report any limitation in usual activities because of pain. The administration of analgesia was not related to the child's age, gender or fracture site. Displaced fractures were associated with significantly more frequent analgesia being taken (OR 5.5, 95% CI 1.4 to 21.0). CONCLUSION: Although some studies recommend scheduled analgesic treatment after discharge for bone fractures, this study would suggest analgesia on demand in children with non-displaced fractures, limiting scheduled analgesia to children with displaced fractures.

The risks of physicians' conformism: reflections from the opioid overflow.

Opioid-related mortality in adolescents is spreading in the US, with prescription opioids playing a crucial role in the development of addiction. We traced back to the process leading to the so called "opioid overflow", trying to identify any modifiable attitude.Since the late 1990s, pain was labelled as the "fifth vital sign" and its proper management was prompted, encouraging the use of opioids for any pain scored at a Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) of 7 or higher. This assumption has some remarkable limitations. NRS is a proxy of pain severity in children, and pain measurement should be strengthened by a more comprehensive pain evaluation. Moreover, while remaining a fundamental therapeutic right of patients suffering postoperative or chronic severe pain, opioids show no evidence of superiority respect to non-opioid regimens in the management of pain from several acute conditions.Italy, as other European countries, is often reluctant to the use of opioids, even when highly recommendable, missing the opportunity of properly treating those selected patients with severe pain. Both attitudes can be viewed as the result of an extreme simplification of the complex process of pain evaluation and treatment, by means of a 'one-size-fits-all' approach.This highlights the need for a systematic and patient-tailored attitude to children in pain, avoiding applying guidelines without question. Good clinical practice must rely on guidelines, which, however, as often based on partial and insufficient data, can be questioned by emerging new evidence, and should not substitute our rational thinking, and capability to understand each patient, avoiding excessive conformism.

Myositis ossificans mimicking sarcoma: a not so rare bioptic diagnostic pitfall.

BACKGROUND: Myositis ossificans (MO) is a heterotopic bone formation in soft tissues, usually caused by traumas or neuropathies. Although the aetiology remains unclear, MO is supposed to be an osteoblast metaplasia with a benign and self-limiting course. Remarkably, at onset MO can be clinically, radiologically and histologically indistinguishable to soft tissue malignancies, especially in cases lacking a history of trauma, leading to misdiagnoses and improper treatments. CASE PRESENTATION: A 13-year-old male was referred to the Oncology Department because of a previous diagnosis of osteogenic sarcoma of his left thigh. The diagnosis was made upon a history of isolated thigh pain in the absence of traumas, the evidence of a contrast-enhanced soft tissue mass on magnetic resonance imaging and the histological findings of atypical nuclei and mitotic figures. The lesion was eventually radiologically unchanged after five cycles of chemotherapy; thus, the child was referred for radical surgery. At admission, endorsing the child well-appearance, together with the evidence of a reduced calcified lesion on a further magnetic resonance, a clinical suspicion of myositis ossificans was raised. Hence, the excisional biopsy confirmed the pathognomonic zonal pattern of myositis ossificans. CONCLUSIONS: This case highlights some frequent diagnostic pitfalls facing myositis ossificans. A lacking history of traumas, along with a too early radiological and histological evaluation can lead to a misdiagnosis of soft tissue malignancies. Even in the absence of a clear history of trauma, a painful soft tissue swelling with a benign clinical course should raise the suspicion of myositis ossificans.

Selumetinib in the Treatment of Symptomatic Intractable Plexiform Neurofibromas in Neurofibromatosis Type 1: A Prospective Case Series with Emphasis on Side Effects.

BACKGROUND: Plexiform neurofibromas (PN) are congenital tumors that affect up to 50% of individuals with neurofibromatosis type 1. Despite their benign nature, they can grow rapidly and cause severe morbidities. Selumetinib, an inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) 1 and 2, was reported to induce a clinical response in pediatric subjects with inoperable PN. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to describe a prospective case series of patients treated with selumetinib with emphasis on drug adverse events. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All the subjects who received selumetinib at the Pediatric Department of Scientific Research Institute and Hospital "Burlo Garofolo", from November 2017 to January 2020, were progressively included. We monitored the patients with a follow-up visit every 3 months. MRI or CT scans to monitor the growth of the tumor were performed after 3 months of treatment, and then every 6-9 months. RESULTS: Selumetinib was prescribed to nine children, with a total of 17 inoperable PN. The mean follow-up period was 12 months. During the follow-up, one patient experienced an ischemic stroke, unrelated to the treatment. Only minor adverse events were observed: six individuals developed gastrointestinal side effects, seven patients presented a mild form of acne, six had paronychia, four developed irritability, and two showed a mild increase in creatine kinase. None of the patients stopped the treatment. Tumor reduction > 20% was recorded in 16 out of 17 PN (94%). One PN remained stable. No tumor growth was recorded during the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: In this case series, selumetinib appears to be effective and safe for the pediatric population.