Helicopter versus ground ambulance transport for interfacility transfer of critically ill children.

Background: Following initial stabilization, critically ill children often require transfer to a specialized pediatric hospital. While the use of specialized pediatric transport teams has been associated with improved outcomes for these patients, the additional influence of transfer mode (helicopter or ground ambulance) on clinical outcomes remains unknown.

Methods: We investigated the association between transport mode and outcomes among critically ill children transferred to a single pediatric hospital via a specialized pediatric transport team.

Sleep quality and its correlates in the first year of dialysis.

Although sleep problems are thought to be prevalent among patients who undergo dialysis, there is only limited information on the determinants of sleep quality and the change in sleep quality during the first year of dialysis treatment. This report uses data from a national cohort study of incident hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients to identify the correlates of sleep quality and to determine the extent to which sleep quality is related to patients' health-related quality of life and survival. This report includes 909 incident dialysis patients who responded to questions about sleep quality.

Skipped treatments, markers of nutritional nonadherence, and survival among incident hemodialysis patients.

Background: Skipping hemodialysis treatments and failing to adhere to prescribed diets are thought to injure hemodialysis patients.

Methods: We examined predictors of hemodialysis skipping and laboratory measures of nonadherence and then examined the association of dialysis skipping and serum potassium and phosphate levels with survival.

Results: Of 739 patients, 67 were classified as skippers because they were absent for greater than 3% of scheduled treatments.

Post-transplantation growth among pediatric recipients of liver transplantation.

Improving a patient's quality-of-life (QOL) post-liver transplantation is of great importance. An aspect of improved QOL is the restoration of normal growth patterns in pediatric patients. To describe the post-transplantation growth patterns of 72 children included in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases - Liver Transplantation Database (NIDDK-LTD), multilevel models were used, according to which children who waited more than a year for transplantation were smaller, compared with age and sex matched peers, at transplantation than children who waited less than a year while children who were growth retarded at transplantation experienced a larger yearly comparison height increase than children who were not growth retarded.