Nurse-driven intranasal dexmedetomidine administration as sedation for non-invasive procedures in children: a single centre audit.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study is to audit the efficacy and safety of intranasal dexmedetomidine sedation for non-invasive procedural sedation in children provided by nurses of the procedural sedation (PROSA) team in the University Hospitals Leuven. Efficacy (successful sedation as sole sedative) and safety (cardiorespiratory monitoring, saturation) were assessed. In this audit, prospectively recorded data were extracted from the medical files in 772 patients between 4 weeks to 18 years old, who underwent sedation with intranasal dexmedetomidine (2-4 µg/kg) by the nurse-driven PROSA team, following pre-screening on risk factors.

Intranasal Dexmedetomidine as Sedative for Medical Imaging in Young Children: A Systematic Review to Provide a Roadmap for an Evidence-Guided Clinical Protocol.

There is an increasing need for effective anxiety and pain reduction during medical imaging procedures in children, addressed by non-pharmacological or pharmacological approaches. Dexmedetomidine is a fairly recently marketed, selective α2-adrenergic agonist that can be administered intranasally. To develop an evidence-guided clinical protocol, we investigated the (side) effects, preconditions and safety aspects following intranasal dexmedetomidine administration in children (1 month-5 years) for procedural sedation during medical imaging.

Pediatric Procedural Sedation and Analgesia (PROSA) in the Leuven University Hospitals: An Audit on Efficacy and Safety.

The hospital can be a stressful environment for a child. To address the increase in demands for pediatric procedural sedation, the PROSA team initiative was started in the Leuven University Hospitals in 2014. In this study, we assessed the efficacy and safety of this project since its initiation.

Glycemic control in the pediatric intensive care unit of Leuven: two years of experience.

Stress hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia are associated with increased mortality and morbidity in critically ill patients. Three randomized controlled trials, in the surgical, medical, and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of the Leuven University in Belgium, demonstrated the beneficial response of tightly controlling blood glucose levels within age-adjusted narrow limits by applying intensive insulin therapy. Follow-up studies could not confirm the results obtained in the Leuven studies but revealed the complexity associated with tight glycemic control (TGC).

Assessment of blood glucose control in the pediatric intensive care unit: extension of the glycemic penalty index toward children and infants.

Background: The glycemic penalty index (GPI) is a measure to assess blood glucose (BG) control in critically ill adult patients but needs to be adapted for children and infants.

Method: The squared differences between a clinical expertise penalty function and the corresponding polynomial function are minimized for optimization purposes. The average of all penalties (individually assigned to all BG readings) represents the patient-specific GPI.