Ethical Considerations in Ever-Expanding Utilization of ECLS: A Research Agenda.

Technological advancements and rapid expansion in the clinical use of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) across all age ranges in the last decade, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to important ethical considerations. As a costly and resource intensive therapy, ECLS is used emergently under high stakes circumstances where there is often prognostic uncertainty and risk for serious complications. To develop a research agenda to further characterize and address these ethical dilemmas, a working group of specialists in ECLS, critical care, cardiothoracic surgery, palliative care, and bioethics convened at a single pediatric academic institution over the course of 18 months. Using an iterative consensus process, research questions were selected based on: (1) frequency, (2) uniqueness to ECLS, (3) urgency, (4) feasibility to study, and (5) potential to improve patient care. Questions were categorized into broad domains of societal decision-making, bedside decision-making, patient and family communication, medical team dynamics, and research design and implementation. A deeper exploration of these ethical dilemmas through formalized research and deliberation may improve equitable access and quality of ECLS-related medical care.

Building a Culture of Wellness When Systems Do Not Allow for Collaborative Care.

INTRODUCTION: Health care is fragmented and frustrating to patients and physicians. The consequences include patient and physician dissatisfaction. METHODS: The author's perspective is informed by his research, innovation, and leadership to optimize the experience of care for physicians and patients. RESULTS: Understanding and prioritizing the touchpoints between patients and physicians is essential to designing health care delivery that is compassionate to patients and is fulfilling and sustainable for physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital administrative leaders and physicians must reject the culture of a dichotomy in purpose, and partner to create systems that make the right thing to do, the easy thing to do. LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: Level V-expert opinion.

CONNECT Workshops to Enhance Physician and Patient Experience: Interviews Reveal the Physician Perspective.

INTRODUCTION: Physicians' relationships with patients are a critical determinant of job satisfaction, and patients who experience compassionate care have better outcomes. The CONNECT workshop at Seattle Children's teaches communication strategies to optimize both patient and physician experience. This article describes participants' experiences during the workshops and the impact on their subsequent behaviors and satisfaction. METHODS: Thirteen semistructured interviews were conducted with physicians, representing 11 specialties. Researchers used a series of immersion-crystallization cycles through which they iteratively immersed themselves in the data by reviewing all transcripts and coming up with key themes. According to thematic findings, they adjusted the interview guides, adding or deleting probes. After crystallizing an initial list of key themes, they created a codebook, coded using qualitative analysis software and met after coding each transcript to discuss their codes, add, and change codes, and recode when necessary. RESULTS: Researchers identified 2 thematic responses concerning workshop experience. Physicians valued colleague interaction (Theme A) and appreciated the nonprescriptive curriculum (Theme B). Likewise, 3 themes reflecting workshop impact also emerged. Physicians reported the workshop encouraged presence and self-awareness during patient encounters (Theme C). They learned to address patient-driven concerns (Theme D), and learned empathetic strategies to connect more deeply with patients (Theme E). CONCLUSION: This study offers perspectives from a diverse group of physicians concerning their experience with the communication workshop, including the opportunity for physicians to focus on self-discovery, authenticity, connect on a deeper level with colleagues, and adopt key strategies to enhance interactions with patients.

Examining palliative care team involvement in automatic consultations for children on extracorporeal life support in the pediatric intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is an advanced form of life-sustaining therapy that creates stressful dilemmas for families. In May 2009, Seattle Children's Hospital (SCH) implemented a policy to involve the Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) in all ECLS cases through automatic referral. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to describe PACT involvement in the context of automatic consultations for ECLS patients and their family members. METHODS: We retrospectively examined chart notes for 59 consecutive cases and used content analysis to identify themes and patterns. RESULTS: The degree of PACT involvement was related to three domains: prognostic uncertainty, medical complexity, and need for coordination of care with other services. Low PACT involvement was associated with cases with little prognostic uncertainty, little medical complexity, and minimal need for coordination of care. Medium PACT involvement was associated with two categories of cases: 1) those with a degree of medical complexity but little prognostic uncertainty; and 2) those that had a degree of prognostic uncertainty but little medical complexity. High PACT involvement had the greatest medical complexity and prognostic uncertainty, and also had those cases with a high need for coordination of care. CONCLUSIONS: We describe a framework for understanding the potential involvement of palliative care among patients receiving ECLS that explains how PACT organizes its efforts toward patients and families with the highest degree of need. Future studies should examine whether this approach is associated with improved patient and family outcomes.

Minimizing bleeding associated with mechanical circulatory support following pediatric heart surgery.

OBJECTIVE: The use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to support patients with early postcardiotomy heart failure may be associated with catastrophic bleeding, making its use undesirable. However, postcardiotomy mechanical circulatory assistance is necessary in some patients to allow for myocardial recovery. We have assembled a centrifugal pump system (CPS) that does not require early systemic anticoagulation. This study compares postoperative bleeding in pediatric patients placed on standard ECMO versus CPS within 24h of cardiotomy. METHODS: Between November 2002 and February 2007, 25 patients (age 0 days-1.72 years) received postcardiotomy mechanical support. Fourteen patients were placed on ECMO and 11 patients were placed on CPS within 24h of surgical repair. Retrospective analysis was performed of chest-tube drainage at multiple time points following initiation of mechanical support. Additional variables, including Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery-1 (RACHS-1) score, total time on mechanical support, 30-day mortality, activated clotting time, blood-product administration, circuit-related complications, and circuit changes were also analyzed. RESULTS: Patients on ECMO (0.30 ± 0.39 years) and CPS (0.40 ± 0.56 years) were of similar age (p = 0.64). Patients on ECMO (0.3 ± 0.1m(2)) and CPS (0.3 ± 0.1m(2)) had similar body surface areas (p = 0.46). Patients placed on CPS had significantly less chest-tube drainage during the first 4h of support. Activated clotting times appeared to be higher during the first 12h of ECMO versus CPS. There was no statistical difference between ECMO and CPS with respect to the following variables: RACHS-1 score, time on support, 30-day mortality, circuit-related complications, and circuit changes. Blood-product administration at 24h of support was significantly less (p = 0.04) for patients on CPS versus ECMO. CONCLUSIONS: Mechanical circulatory support can be provided without the complication of clinically significant bleeding if a specialized circuit is used. This has important implications for the decision to use mechanical support in the immediate postoperative period in the face of ventricular failure. In addition, early mechanical support can be used with a low incidence of circuit-related complications.

Pathophysiology of right ventricular failure in pulmonary hypertension.

This review focuses on right ventricular anatomy and function and the significance of ventricular interdependence in the response of the right ventricle to an increase in afterload. This is followed by a discussion of the pathophysiology of right ventricular failure in pulmonary arterial hypertension as well as in other clinical syndromes of pulmonary hypertension. Pulmonary hypertension is common in critically ill children and is associated with several conditions. Regardless of the etiology, an increase in right ventricular afterload leads to a number of compensatory changes in cardiovascular physiology. These changes are not altogether intuitive and require an understanding of right ventricular physiology and ventricular interdependence to optimize the care of these patients.

Trends in pediatric organ donation after cardiac death.

OBJECTIVE: Organ donation after cardiac death is viewed as one way of partially closing the current gap between organ supply and demand. There are no published guidelines for organ donation after cardiac death specific to the pediatric population. The objective of this study was to examine the cumulative pediatric donation-after-cardiac-death experience to set the context for the development and sharing of best-practice guidelines. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective, descriptive study that used data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing database from 1993 to 2005. Organ data from all donors after cardiac death who were < 18 years of age were analyzed. The list of donor medical centers was then cross-referenced with the member list from the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions. RESULTS: There were 683 organs from donation-after-cardiac-death donors < 18 years of age. Of those, < 5% were used for pediatric recipients. In comparison, approximately 20% of non-donation-after-cardiac-death organs from pediatric donors were used for pediatric recipients. The vast majority of donation-after-cardiac-death organs donated were kidneys and livers. More than 50% of medical centers that had a pediatric organ-donation-after-cardiac-death donor had just 1. The medical center with the largest pediatric organ-donation-after-cardiac-death donation experience had 14 donors. Forty-three percent of medical centers that had > or = 1 pediatric donation-after-cardiac-death donor were members of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions. Fifty-six percent of all of the pediatric donation-after-cardiac-death organs were donated from the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institution member centers. CONCLUSIONS: Data regarding the use of pediatric donation-after-cardiac-death organs for pediatric recipients remain sparse. Few medical centers have had enough donation-after-cardiac-death donor experience to report a tried-and-true approach. We advocate for comprehensive collection and reporting of outcome data for all-aged recipients of pediatric donation-after-cardiac-death organs to help facilitate the generation of evidence-based best-practice guidelines for pediatric donation after cardiac death.

An investigation of Aspergillus cardiac surgical site infections in 3 pediatric patients.

BACKGROUND: Within a 3-month period, 3 pediatric patients at our hospital developed Aspergillus surgical site infections after undergoing cardiac surgery. METHODS: A multidisciplinary team conducted an epidemiologic review of the 3 patients and their infections, operative and postoperative patient care delivery, and routine maintenance of hospital equipment and air-filtration systems and investigated potential environmental exposures within the hospital that may have contributed to the development of these infections. RESULTS: Review of the patients and their infections, operative and postoperative patient care delivery, and routine maintenance did not reveal a source for infection. Inspection of operating room (OR) facilities identified several areas in need of repair. Of the 58 samples of air and equipment exhaust in the ORs and patient care areas, 11 revealed 2 to 4 colony-forming units of various Aspergillus species per cubic meter of air, and the remaining 47 samples were negative for Aspergillus. Eighty-three samples of surfaces and equipment water reservoirs were obtained from the OR and patient care areas. One culture of a soiled liquid nitrogen tank housed between the 2 cardiac ORs revealed 13 colony-forming units of Aspergillus. CONCLUSION: No definitive source was identified, although a soiled liquid nitrogen tank contaminated with Aspergillus and kept near the OR was found and could have been a possible source.

Noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation in children with lower airway obstruction.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Mechanical ventilation of patients with severe lower airway obstruction presents significant risks; therefore, avoiding the intubation in these patients has been a principal goal of clinical management. Noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation has been shown to be effective in treating adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but its use has not been studied prospectively in children with acute obstructive lower airways disease. The objective of this study was to determine whether noninvasive mask ventilation improved respiratory function in children with asthma and other obstructive lower airways diseases. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective, randomized, crossover study. PATIENTS: A total of 20 children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with acute lower airway obstruction. METHODS: Children were randomized to receive either 2 hrs of noninvasive ventilation followed by crossover to 2 hrs of standard therapy or 2 hrs of standard therapy followed by 2 hrs of noninvasive ventilation. RESULTS: Using a Clinical Asthma Score, we found that noninvasive ventilation decreased signs of work of breathing such as respiratory rate, accessory muscle use, and dyspnea as compared with standard therapy. There was no serious morbidity associated with noninvasive ventilation. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that noninvasive ventilation can be an effective treatment for children with acute lower airway obstruction.

Dexamethasone reduces postoperative troponin levels in children undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass.

OBJECTIVE: We previously demonstrated that dexamethasone treatment before cardiopulmonary bypass in children reduces the postoperative systemic inflammatory response. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that dexamethasone administration before cardiopulmonary bypass in children correlates with a lesser degree of myocardial injury as measured by a decrease in cardiac troponin I release. DESIGN: A prospective, randomized, double-blind study. SETTING: The cardiac surgery operating room and intensive care unit of a pediatric referral hospital. SUBJECTS: Twenty-eight patients who underwent open-heart surgery for congenital heart defects. INTERVENTIONS: Patients received either placebo (group I, n = 13) or dexamethasone, 1 mg/kg iv (group II, n = 15), 1 hr before initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass. Plasma cardiac troponin I samples were obtained at three time points: immediately before study agent (sample 1), 10 mins after protamine sulfate administration after cardiopulmonary bypass (sample 2), and 24 hrs postoperatively (sample 3). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Mean cardiac troponin I levels (+/-sd) were significantly lower at sample time 3 in group II (dexamethasone; 33.4 +/- 20.0 ng/mL) vs. group I (control; 86.9 +/- 81.1) (p =.04). CONCLUSION: Dexamethasone administration before cardiopulmonary bypass in children resulted in a significant decrease in cardiac troponin I levels at 24 hrs postoperatively. We postulate that this may represent a decrease in myocardial injury, and, thus, a possible cardioprotective effect produced by dexamethasone.