Publications by authors named "Alicia Lew"

Newborns are susceptible to postnatal Vitamin K deficiencies from limited placental transfer, gastrointestinal absorption, and bioavailability in breast milk and formula preparations. For over 50 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended prophylactic vitamin K to prevent hemorrhagic disease in newborns. Yet, public skepticism contributes to increasing refusal rates.

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Background: Children with asthma exacerbations requiring pediatric ICU (PICU) admission, known as critical asthma (CA), are prescribed a variety of therapeutic interventions including heliox. Delivered invasively and noninvasively, heliox is employed to enhance deposition of aerosolized medications, improve obstructive pulmonary pathophysiology, and avoid complications associated with invasive mechanical ventilation. We used the Virtual Pediatric Systems database to update estimates of heliox prescription and explore for relationships between heliox and mechanical ventilation frequency and duration.

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Background: Volatile anesthetic agents are described as rescue therapy for children invasively ventilated for critical asthma. Yet, data are currently limited to case series.

Aims: Using the Virtual Pediatric Systems database, we assessed children admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit invasively ventilated for life-threatening asthma and hypothesized ventilation duration and mortality rates would be lower for subjects exposed to volatile anesthetics compared with those without exposure.

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Background: In cases of critical asthma (CA), heliox may be applied as an adjunctive rescue therapy to avoid invasive mechanical ventilation (MV), improve deposition of aerosolized medications, and enhance laminar airflow through obstructed airways. Using the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) registry, we evaluate heliox prescribing and explored for differences in MV rates and hospital length of stay (LOS) among children with and without heliox exposure.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study using PHIS data from 42 pediatric intensive care units among children 5-17 years of age admitted for CA from 2010 through 2019.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed the characteristics and outcomes of 39 children, aged 5-17, hospitalized with status asthmaticus and treated with either high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) or bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP).
  • It found that children receiving BiPAP were generally older, had more severe asthma, and experienced longer treatments with medications compared to those using HFNC.
  • Overall, both treatments were well tolerated with no significant differences in mortality, mechanical ventilation rates, or length of hospital stay, highlighting a need for more research to determine which method is superior under different circumstances.
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Forearm muscle herniation is a rare but known cause of symptomatic pain in the upper extremity caused by compression or strangulation of the muscle belly through a defect in the overlying fascia. Because of the rarity of this condition, optimal treatment is still widely unknown and debated. To date, there are various treatment methods published, including rest, physiotherapy, primary repair, fasciotomy, fascia lata inlay, onlay or wrap-around, mesh graft, and acellular porcine collagen matrix.

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We followed 8 patients (4 males) with biochemically and/or molecular genetically proven deficiencies of the E1α subunit of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC; 3 patients) or respiratory chain complexes I (1 patient), IV (3 patients) or I+IV (1 patient) who received oral dichloroacetate (DCA; 12.5 mg/kg/12 h) for 9.7 to 16.

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