A Tale of 8 Cities: Pediatric Critical Care Redeployment to Adult Care During Wave 1 of COVID-19.

Background: Pediatric hospital resources including critical care faculty (intensivists) redeployed to provide care to adults in adult ICUs or repurposed PICUs during wave 1 of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Objectives: To determine the magnitude of pediatric hospital resource redeployment and the experience of pediatric intensivists who redeployed to provide critical care to adults with COVID-19.

Methods: A mixed methods study was conducted at 9 hospitals in 8 United States cities where pediatric resources were redeployed to provide care to critically ill adults with COVID-19.

Reduction in Mortality Following Pediatric Rapid Response Team Implementation.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a physician-led rapid response team program on morbidity and mortality following unplanned admission to the PICU.

Design: Before-after study.

Setting: Single-center quaternary-referral PICU.

Left main coronary artery dissection in pediatric sport-related chest trauma.

Background: Traumatic coronary artery dissection (CAD) after blunt chest trauma (BCT) is extremely rare, particularly in children. Among coronary dissections, left main coronary artery (LMCA) dissection is the least common, with only two pediatric cases reported previously. Manifestations of coronary dissections can range from ST segment changes to sudden death.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cannula malposition in the azygos vein in an infant.

Introduction: Misplacement of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) venous cannula in the azygos vein has previously been described only in newborns.

Case: For the first time, we report an aberrant ECMO cannula placement in the azygos vein in a child outside neonatal period. History of chronic lung disease and ligation of persistent ductus arteriosus leading to elevated right ventricular pressure was the potential risk factor.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: current clinical practice, coding, and reimbursement.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a technique for providing life support for patients experiencing both pulmonary and cardiac failure by maintaining oxygenation and perfusion until native organ function is restored. ECMO is used routinely at many specialized hospitals for infants and less commonly for children with respiratory or cardiac failure from a variety of causes. Its usage is more controversial in adults, but select medical centers have reported favorable findings in patients with ARDS and other causes of severe pulmonary failure.

A novel error-reporting tool in pediatric intensive care.

Patient safety is a critical component of the U.S. healthcare system: thousands of people, including children, die or are injured yearly as a result of medical error.

Distribution and correlation of the natural radionuclides in a coal mine of the West Macedonia Lignite Center (Greece).

The distribution and correlation of six natural nuclides in the West Macedonia Lignite Center, Northern Greece were studied. Fifty-five samples of lignite, aged from 1.8 to 5 million years, and corresponding steriles, beds of marls, clays and sands alternating with the lignite, were collected perpendicular to the mine benches and measured spectroscopically.

Donation after cardiac death in pediatric critical care.

Objective: To describe the unmet need for pediatric organs, the history of donation after cardiac death (DCD), implementation of DCD policies in children's hospitals, and the current U.S. experience with DCD in children.

Effect of a specialized pediatric institutional setting on organ recovery from potential donors.

Background: The relationship between accessibility to the full range of subspecialty care available at freestanding pediatric hospitals and organ donor management and recovery rates has not been studied.

Objective: To examine current rates of recovery of organs from children for transplantation at free-standing pediatric hospitals versus all other hospitals.

Methods: Data from the hospitals served by Mid-America Transplant Services from January 2000 to July 2003 were reviewed.

Impact of free calcium oxide content of fly ash on dust and sulfur dioxide emissions in a lignite-fired power plant.

Emitted pollutants from the Agios Dimitrios lignite-fired power plant in northern Greece show a very strong linear correlation with the free calcium oxide content of the lignite ash. Dust (fly ash) emissions are positively correlated to free calcium oxide content, whereas sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions are negatively correlated. As a result, at present, the Agios Dimitrios Power Plant operates very strictly within the legislative limits on atmospheric particulate emission.

The effect of surgical case volume on outcome after the Norwood procedure.

Objectives: We analyze the effect of surgical case volume on the survival of infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome who underwent stage I surgical palliation (the Norwood procedure). The purpose of our study was to understand more clearly the relative effects of institution and surgeon experience on patient outcome.

Methods: Using the Pediatric Health Information System database belonging to the pediatric hospital members of the Child Health Corporation of America, we identified newborn infants (< 30 days old on admission) from 1998 through 2001 admitted with the diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Outcome of pediatric patients treated with extracorporeal life support after cardiac surgery.

Background: Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) has been used for over two decades in select patients after cardiac surgery. We previously described factors associated with death in this population. We now review our recent experience to reassess factors related to mortality.

Extracorporal life support for pulmonary hemorrhage in children: a case series.

Objective: To examine the use and outcome of extracorporeal life support in children with severe respiratory failure caused by pulmonary hemorrhage.

Design: Retrospective case series report.

Setting: Pediatric intensive care unit in a university children's hospital.