Urinalysis in Suspected Child Abuse Evaluation in the Emergency Department.

BACKGROUND: Intra-abdominal injury (IAI) is the second leading cause of mortality in abused children. It is challenging to identify in young patients due to their limited verbal skills, delayed symptoms, less muscular abdominal wall, and limited bruising. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children aged 0 to 12 months who were evaluated in the emergency department for suspected child abuse with a skeletal survey and urinalysis between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2017. Our primary objective was to identify the proportion of IAI cases identified by urinalysis alone (>10 RBC/HPF) and not by examination findings or other laboratory results. A secondary objective was to quantify potential delay in disposition while waiting for urinalysis results, calculated as the length of time between receiving skeletal survey and laboratory results and receiving urinalysis results. RESULTS: Six hundred thirteen subjects met our inclusion criteria; two subjects had hematuria, one of whom had a urinary tract infection. The other was determined to have blood from a catheterized urine specimen. One subject was found to have an IAI. We further found that urinalysis was delayed for 78% of subjects and took a median of 93 [interquartile range, 46-153] minutes longer than imaging and/or laboratories. CONCLUSIONS: No subjects were diagnosed with abdominal trauma based on urinalysis during evaluation in the emergency department who would not have been identified by other standard testing. In addition, patients' disposition was delayed while waiting for urinalysis.

Pediatric emergency care coordinator workforce: A survey study.

Objectives: The appointment of pediatric emergency care coordinators (PECC) in emergency departments (EDs) enhances pediatric readiness, yet little is understood regarding this workforce. We describe PECC role characteristics, responsibilities, barriers, and threats to the role among a national cohort. Methods: We surveyed a sample of PECCs from all regions of the United States who participated in the Emergency Medical Services for Children PECC Workforce and Trauma Collaboratives (2021-2022). EDs were categorized by annual pediatric patient volume: low (<1800), medium (1800-4999), medium-high (5000-9999), and high (≥10,000). Trend tests were performed to explore the relationship between pediatric volume and PECC characteristics. Results: Among 187 PECCs, 114 (61.0%) responded. The majority (75.2%) identified as a nurse. There was a significant difference in median hours per week spent on PECC activities by pediatric volume ranging from a median of 2 hours (interquartile range [IQR] 0.0-2.3) for low pediatric volume to 16 hours (IQR 4.0-37.0) for high pediatric volume (P < 0.001). Most respondents reported more time was needed for PECC activities (58.4%), and desired additional training to support the role (70.8%). Most (74.6%) felt the PECC position should be paid, yet 30.7% reported the role was voluntary. The most frequently assigned responsibilities were education of staff (77.2%) and oversight of quality improvement (QI) efforts (72.8%). Conclusion: Characteristics of PECC workforce vary but PECC activities of education and QI work are common among all. There is a reported need for additional training and support. Further studies will determine the impact of PECC characteristics on pediatric readiness.

Pediatric appendicitis in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: A retrospective chart review.

Aim: Conduct a time trend analysis that describes 2 groups of patients admitted to a large tertiary children's hospital that presented with appendicitis and determine if there was an increase in complicated appendicitis when compared between 2 time periods before and during the early coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all children presenting to a single-center site with appendicitis between March 23 and August 31, 2020, in the Central Texas region. We compared 507 patients presenting with appendicitis from the non-COVID-19 era in 2019 with n = 249 to patients presenting during the COVID time period with n = 258. All patients with appendicitis within those time periods were reviewed with analysis of various characteristics in regard to presentation, diagnosis of uncomplicated versus complicated appendicitis, and management outcomes. Results: There were no significant demographic differences or change in the number of appendicitis cases noted between the 2 time periods of comparison. There was no significant difference in rates of complicated appendicitis or presentation time following symptom onset between the 2 eras. There was no significant difference in intraoperative or postoperative complications. There was a statistically significant increase in the use of computed tomography (CT) scans (P-value = 0.004) with patients 1.81 times more likely to have a CT scan in the pandemic era after adjusting for patient-level factors. The effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 status on outcomes was not part of the data analysis. Conclusion: Our study is the largest to date examining appendicitis complications in the era of COVID. In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found no delay in presentation in children presenting to the emergency department and no increase in complicated appendicitis. We did identify an increase in the use of CT scans for definitive diagnosis of appendicitis noted in the pandemic era. Although COVID-19 status was not studied, the finding of increased CT use for a definitive diagnosis of appendicitis was a distinctive finding of this study showing a change in practice in pediatric emergency medicine.

Initiative to Improve Postintubation Sedation in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that appropriate pediatric postintubation sedation (PIS) after rapid sequence intubation only occurs 28% of the time. Factors such as high provider variability, cognitive overload, and errors of omission can delay time to PIS in a paralyzed patient. PURPOSE: To increase the proportion of children receiving timely PIS by 20% within 6 months. METHODS: A multidisciplinary team identified key drivers and targeted interventions to improve timeliness of PIS. The primary outcome of "sedation in an adequate time frame" was defined as a time to post-Rapid Sequence Intubation sedative administration less than the duration of action of the RSI sedative agent. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of patients receiving any sedation and time to PIS administration. RESULTS: Pediatric postintubation sedation in an adequate time was improved from 27.9% of intubated patients to 55.6% after intervention (p = .001). The number of patients receiving any PIS improved from 74% to 94% (p = .006). The median time from RSI to PIS was reduced from 13 to 9 minutes (p < .001). Process control charts showed a reduction in PIS variability and a centerline reduction from 19 to 10 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of an intubation checklist and a multidisciplinary approach improved the rate of adequate pediatric PIS.

Interrater Reliability of the Pediatric Asthma Score.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the interrater reliability (IRR) of the Pediatric Asthma Score (PAS) and to evaluate the discriminative performance of this score to predict the need for hospital admission among children with acute asthma. METHODS: A secondary analysis of prospective data was performed to compare triage nurse and study personnel PAS scores among children aged 6 to 18 years presenting to the emergency department with acute asthma. The IRR was determined by calculation of weighted Cohen κ with differences evaluated by Wilcoxon ranked pairs. Receiver operating characteristic curves were created to evaluate the predictive ability of PAS to determine the need for hospital admission. RESULTS: One hundred one subjects were evaluated by both study personnel and a triage nurse with PAS score recorded. The IRR of the total PAS score was determined to be moderate (κ = 0.57) and acceptable, although lower than previously reported. Individual components of the PAS score demonstrated fair to substantial agreement. Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated total PAS at emergency department triage to have poor test characteristics in predicting the need for hospital admission, whether PAS was determined by study personnel, triage nurse, or an average score (area under the curve, 0.62-0.65). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, total PAS score demonstrated a moderate and acceptable level of IRR with a poor discriminative ability to determine the need for hospital admission at the time of ED triage.

Evaluation of a Pediatric Early Warning Score as a Predictor of Occult Invasive Bacterial Infection in the Pediatric Emergency Department.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of the study were to evaluate the diagnostic performance of Pediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) to predict occult invasive bacterial infection (IBI) in well-appearing pediatric emergency department (PED) patients without known risk factors for bacterial infection and to compare PEWS to heart rate (HR) and Emergency Severity Index (ESI). METHODS: We performed a retrospective case-control analysis of febrile PED patients aged 60 days to 18 years over a 2-year period. Subjects were excluded if they were ill appearing, admitted to an intensive care unit, or had a known high-risk condition. Cases of occult IBI were included if they had a noncontaminant positive culture other than an isolated positive urine culture. Two febrile control subjects were identified for each case. Odds ratios and receiver operating characteristic curves were evaluated to determine performance characteristics of PEWS at triage and disposition, age-adjusted HR at triage and disposition, and ESI at triage. RESULTS: Compared with 178 controls, 89 cases had higher disposition PEWS, higher disposition HR, lower ESI, and higher rate of hospital admission. Disposition PEWS ≥3 (odds ratio, 2.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-6.18), disposition HR > 99th percentile, and ESI demonstrated increased odds of occult IBI. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for disposition PEWS (0.56) was similar to triage PEWS (0.54), triage HR (0.54), disposition HR (0.58), and ESI (0.65). CONCLUSIONS: Subjects with PEWS ≥3 at PED disposition have increased odds of occult IBI; however, PEWS has poor discriminative ability at all cutoffs. We cannot recommend PEWS used in isolation to predict occult IBI.

Sucralfate as an Adjunct to Analgesia to Improve Oral Intake in Children With Infectious Oral Ulcers: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

STUDY HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that sucralfate along with oral analgesics (acetaminophen or ibuprofen) administered in the emergency department leads to a clinically significant improvement in oral intake in children with acute infectious oral ulcers. METHODS: This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of sucralfate versus placebo conducted between 2017 and 2018 in an urban pediatric emergency department. Children aged 6 months to 5 years with acute, infectious oral ulcers and poor oral intake received either acetaminophen at 15 mg/kg or ibuprofen at 10 mg/kg and were then randomized to receive sucralfate at 20 mg/kg per dose up to 1 g or a placebo solution. The primary outcome was oral fluid intake within 60 minutes of medication administration. The secondary outcomes were repeat ED visits, length of stay in ED, intravenous hydration rate, admission rate, adverse event rate, and emergency physician's determination of the adequacy of oral intake. RESULTS: One hundred subjects with mild dehydration (clinical dehydration score of 1) and a median age of 1.38 years were enrolled and analyzed (49 in the sucralfate group and 51 in the placebo group). Oral intake 1 hour after drug administration was similar in both the groups: the median intake in the sucralfate group was 9.7 mL/kg and 10.7 mL/kg in the placebo group (difference -1 mL/kg; 95% confidence interval [CI] -2.0 to 4.8). According to the emergency physician's report, the secondary outcomes were significant only for adequate oral intake: 71% in the sucralfate group versus 88% in the placebo group (difference -16.8%; 95% CI -32.2 to -1.4). CONCLUSION: Sucralfate as an adjunct to oral analgesics was not superior to placebo in improving oral intake in children with acute oral infectious ulcers.

Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Breath-Enhanced to Conventional Nebulizers in the Treatment of Children with Acute Asthma.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of a breath-enhanced and a conventional jet nebulizer in the treatment of children with moderate to severe acute asthma. STUDY DESIGN: We enrolled subjects between 6 and 18 years of age presenting to the emergency department (ED) with acute asthma and an initial forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) <70% of predicted. We excluded patients with chronic disease, who required immediate resuscitation, or failed spirometry. Subjects were randomized to breath-enhanced or conventional jet delivery of a 5-mg albuterol treatment. Our primary outcome was change in FEV1, and secondary outcomes included change in clinical asthma scores, ED length of stay, disposition, and side effects. Student t test and multivariable linear regression were used to evaluate the primary outcome. RESULTS: In total, 497 patients were assessed for eligibility with 118 enrolled and 107 subjects available for analysis of the primary outcome. Improvement in FEV1 was significantly greater with conventional jet nebulizer (mean ΔFEV1 +13.8% vs +9.1%, P = .04). This difference remained significant after adjustment for baseline differences. Subgroup analysis of 57 subjects with spirometry meeting American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society guidelines yielded similar results (mean ΔFEV1 +14.5% vs +8.5%, P=.03). There were no significant differences in clinical asthma scores, ED length of stay, disposition, or side effects. CONCLUSIONS: Albuterol delivered via conventional jet nebulizer resulted in significantly greater improvement in FEV1 than albuterol delivered by breath-enhanced nebulizer, without significant differences in clinical measures. Conventional jet nebulizers may deliver albuterol to children with acute asthma more effectively than breath-enhanced nebulizers. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02566902.