Intensive care unit variables and outcome after pediatric traumatic brain injury: a retrospective study of survivors.

Objective: Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of death and disability in children. Hypotension has been associated with poor survival and outcome in children after traumatic brain injury, but the effect of acute hypertension is less certain. The objective was to obtain acute physiologic variables during the early hospitalization period in a cohort of children prospectively enrolled in another study.

Preventing adverse events in the pediatric intensive care unit: prospectively targeting factors that lead to intravenous potassium chloride order errors.

Objective: To prospectively identify and reduce proximal causes of error contributing to inappropriate intravenous potassium chloride orders and reduce adverse events subsequent to these ordering errors.

Design: Pre-post cohort study of the reduction in both proximal causes of error and number of postinfusion elevated serum potassium levels after intervention.

Setting: Sixteen-bed, tertiary care, urban, academic pediatric intensive care unit.

Pediatric trauma: postinjury care in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Traumatic injuries occur in > 20 million children each year and are the leading source of death in children over the age of 1 yr. Mechanisms of injury and subsequent therapies for critically injured children are diverse. This review will focus on resources and management strategies for caring for the severely injured child in the pediatric intensive care unit.