Immunosuppression Regimens for Intestinal Transplantation in Children.

Pediatric intestinal transplant serves as the only definitive treatment for children with irreversible intestinal failure. Successful intestinal transplant hinges upon appropriate management of immunosuppression. The indications for intestinal transplant have changed over time.

Pharmacological management of portal hypertension and its complications in children: lessons from adults and opportunities for the future.

Introduction: Portal hypertension (PHT) and its complications in children are thought to be distinct from adult PHT in several areas, including the underlying bio-physiology of a child in which PHT develops, but also because of the pediatric-specific etiologies that drive disease progression. And yet pharmacologic approaches to PHT in children are mainly based on adult data, modified for pediatric practice. This reality has been driven by a lack of data specific to children.

Medication Use as a Contributor to Fluid Overload in the PICU: A Prospective Observational Study.

In this prospective observational study, we explored the association of daily fluid intake from medication use with fluid overload in 75 children beginning 24 hours after intubation. The mean percent daily fluid intake from medications was 29% in the overall cohort. Excess intake and inadequate output contributed significantly to fluid overload.

Neurostimulant Prescribing Patterns in Children Admitted to the Intensive Care Unit after Traumatic Brain Injury.

Neurostimulant medications are commonly prescribed following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in adults; little is known about their use in children with TBI. Our objective was to analyze neurostimulant prescribing practices from 2005 to 2015 in children admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with TBI. We hypothesized that neurostimulant prescriptions have increased over time and are associated with older age and injury severity.

A Quality Assessment of a Collaborative Model of a Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program.

Background: Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines recommend that key antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) personnel include an infectious disease (ID) physician leader and dedicated ID-trained clinical pharmacist. Limited resources prompted development of an alternative model by using ID physicians and service-based clinical pharmacists at a pediatric hospital. The aim of this study was to analyze the effectiveness and impact of this alternative ASP model.

Implementation of a standardized process for ordering and dispensing of high-alert emergency medication infusions.

Objectives: Pharmacies encounter challenges when ensuring safe, timely medication dispensing to patients in the pediatric intensive care unit, when high-alert medications are needed in emergent situations. Removal of these medications from nursing stock presented challenges to providing timely administration to critical patients. The project's purpose was to develop a new method for reducing dispensing time while improving patient safety in pediatric intensive care units.

Antibiotic therapy in neonatal and pediatric septic shock.

Severe sepsis accounts for nearly 4,500 deaths (mortality rate 10%), and is responsible for nearly $2 billion annual healthcare expenditure in the United States. Early and speedy treatment of critically ill septic patients can halt or reduce the likelihood of physiologic progression to multi-system organ failure. A cornerstone of this therapeutic strategy is antibiotic administration.

Immunoparalysis and nosocomial infection in children with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.

Purpose: Immunoparalysis defined by prolonged monocyte human leukocyte antigen DR depression is associated with adverse outcomes in adult severe sepsis and can be reversed with granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). We hypothesized that immunoparalysis defined by whole-blood ex vivo lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) response <200 pg/mL beyond day 3 of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) is similarly associated with nosocomial infection in children and can be reversed with GM-CSF.

Methods: In study period 1, we performed a multicenter cohort trial of transplant and nontransplant multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) patients (≥2 organ failure).