DNA and inflammatory mediators in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from children with acute inhalational injuries.

The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of using serial bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALFs) to characterize the course of cell damage and inflammation in the airways of pediatric patients with acute burn or inhalation injury. This was a prospective, longitudinal, descriptive pilot study conducted at the Burn and Pediatric Intensive Care Units in a tertiary care medical center. Six consecutively intubated and mechanically ventilated pediatric patients with acute inhalational injuries were studied.

Strict hand hygiene and other practices shortened stays and cut costs and mortality in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Efforts to reduce infections acquired during a hospital stay through improvements in the quality of care have had measurable results in many hospital settings. In pediatric intensive care units, the right quality interventions can save lives and money. We found that improving practices of hand hygiene, oral care, and central-line catheter care reduced hospital-acquired infections and improved mortality rates among children admitted to a large pediatric intensive care unit in 2007-09.

Probiotic administration and the incidence of nosocomial infection in pediatric intensive care: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of probiotics in reducing the rates of nosocomial infection in pediatric intensive care.

Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Setting: A 16-bed pediatric intensive care unit in a university-affiliated children's hospital.

A new challenge in pediatric obesity: pediatric hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome.

Objectives: To describe four adolescents with hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome, an uncommon presentation of type 2 diabetes in pediatric patients.

Design: Case report.

Setting: Two tertiary pediatric intensive care units in university teaching hospitals.