COVID-19-Associated Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS-TS) in Intensive Care: A Retrospective Cohort Trial (PIMS-TS INT).

Paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with COVID-19 (PIMS-TS) is a new disease in children and adolescents that occurs after often asymptomatic or mild COVID-19. It can be manifested by different clinical symptomatology and varying severity of disease based on multisystemic inflammation. The aim of this retrospective cohort trial was to describe the initial clinical presentation, diagnostics, therapy and clinical outcome of paediatric patients with a diagnosis of PIMS-TS admitted to one of the 3 PICUs. All paediatric patients who were admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS) during the study period were enrolled in the study. A total of 180 patients were analysed. The most common symptoms upon admission were fever (81.6%, n = 147), rash (70.6%, n = 127), conjunctivitis (68.9%, n = 124) and abdominal pain (51.1%, n = 92). Acute respiratory failure occurred in 21.1% of patients (n = 38). Vasopressor support was used in 20.6% (n = 37) of cases. Overall, 96.7% of patients (n = 174) initially tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies. Almost all patients received antibiotics during in-hospital stays. No patient died during the hospital stay or after 28 days of follow-up. Initial clinical presentation and organ system involvement of PIMS-TS including laboratory manifestations and treatment were identified in this trial. Early identification of PIMS-TS manifestation is essential for early treatment and proper management of patients.

Usefulness of perioperative rotational thrombelastometry during scoliosis surgery in children.

OBJECTIVE: Surgical correction of scoliosis in pediatric patients is associated with significant blood loss. Rotational thrombelastometry (ROTEM) might help to decrease the use of blood transfusion products by enabling an early point of care (POC) diagnosis of coagulopathy, thus helping to provide targeted therapy. The aim of this case-control study was to find out whether POC use of ROTEM during scoliosis surgery in children helps to reduce the need for blood transfusion products. METHODS: Data were prospectively analyzed from all patients treated during 2016-2018 who received ROTEM-based therapy during scoliosis surgery. These patients were compared with a group of historical controls treated during 2014-2016 whose scoliosis treatment did not include ROTEM. Perioperative blood loss, consumption of blood transfusion products, and hospital LOS were compared between the groups. RESULTS: A total of 37 patients were analyzed, 22 patients in the non-ROTEM group and 15 patients in the ROTEM group. In the ROTEM group compared with the non-ROTEM group, there was significantly lower perioperative blood loss and administration of packed red blood cell units, no administration of fresh-frozen plasma, and shorter overall hospital LOS (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: ROTEM use during scoliosis surgery in children seems to help to decrease blood loss and the use of blood transfusion products and may also shorten the hospital LOS.Clinical trial registration no.: NCT03699813 (clinicaltrials.gov).

Thromboelastometry as an Alternative Method for Coagulation Assessment in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Invasive Procedures: A Pilot Study.

INTRODUCTION: Standard coagulation tests (activated partial thromboplastin time [aPTT] and prothrombin time [PT]) are used for the assessment of coagulation profile in critically ill pediatric patients undergoing invasive interventions such as insertion of central venous catheter, tonsillectomy, laparotomy, etc. However, these tests do not reflect the profile of whole blood coagulation. Rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) as a point of care (POC) viscoelastic test may serve as an alternative method. Due to its ability to assess coagulation profile of the whole blood, it might yield normal results despite prolonged aPTT/PT results. The aim of this study was to find out if there was any severe bleeding during or after invasive procedures if ROTEM test was normal despite prolonged values of aPTT/PT in pediatric patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data for the years 2015 to 2017 for pediatric patients with prolonged values of aPTT or PT and normal ROTEM tests-internal thromboelastometry (INTEM) (assessing internal pathway of coagulation) and external thromboelastometry (EXTEM) (assessing external pathway of coagulation)-and we looked for severe bleeding during or after invasive procedures. RESULTS: In 26 pediatric patients (children from 2 months to 17 years old), we found that INTEM and EXTEM tests showed normal coagulation despite prolonged values of aPTT ratio with a median of 1.47 (minimum 1.04 and maximum 2.05), international normalized ratio with a median of 1.4 (minimum 0.99 and maximum 2.10), and PT ratio with a median of 1.30 (minimum 0.89 and maximum 2.11). In these patients, no severe bleeding was observed during interventions or postoperatively. CONCLUSION: Our data support using thromboelastometry method as an alternative coagulation test for the assessment of coagulation profile in pediatric patients undergoing surgical or other invasive procedures, especially using it as a POC test. All invasive procedures in our study were performed without severe bleeding despite prolonged values of PT/aPTT with normal ROTEM results. It seems that ROTEM assessment of coagulation may lead to decreased administration of fresh frozen plasma and shorten time of patient preparation for intervention.

Evaluation of Thromboelastometry in Sepsis in Correlation With Bleeding During Invasive Procedures.

Prolongation of prothrombin time (PT) is often encountered in patients with sepsis. On the other hand, thromboelastometry as a global coagulation test might yield normal results. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether prolonged PT in the presence of normal thromboelastometry parameters is associated with severe bleeding in patients with sepsis undergoing invasive procedures. In patients with sepsis undergoing low-risk bleeding invasive procedures (central venous catheter placement, dialysis catheter insertion, drain insertion, and so on) or high-risk bleeding invasive procedures (surgical tracheostomy, surgical laparotomy, thoracotomy, and so on), coagulation was assessed by thromboelastometry using EXTEM test (test for evaluation of the extrinsic pathway of coagulation, contains activator of extrinsic pathway) and with PT. For period of years 2013 to 2016, we assessed occurrence of severe bleeding during those procedures and 24 hours later in patients with prolonged PT and normal thromboelastometry results. This retrospective study was performed at Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine of Motol University Hospital in Prague. Data from 76 patients with sepsis were analyzed. Median value of international normalized ratio (INR) was 1.59 (min-1.3 and max-2.56), and median value of prothrombin ratio (PR) was 1.5 (min-1.23 and max-2.55) with normal thromboelastometry finding. Despite prolonged INR/PR, no severe bleeding was observed during invasive procedures. Our data show that sepsis may be accompanied by normal thromboelastometry results, despite prolonged values of PT, and invasive procedures were performed without severe bleeding. This approach to coagulation assessment in sepsis may reduce administration of fresh frozen plasma to the patients. The study was registered at Clinical Trials.gov with assigned number NCT02971111.