Challenging the status quo of scientific presentations.

Scientific presentations, usually given with slide presentation software such as PowerPoint™, are the most common method for disseminating knowledge to students and peers. Unfortunately, many are boring, text-heavy, and bullet point-riddled data dumps, with animations or cartoons that obscure or distract rather than clarify the message. These presentations, which we have all sat through and/or delivered, are often so dull that they are referred to as "death by PowerPoint™.

Site Variability in Regulatory Oversight for an International Study of Pediatric Sepsis.

Objectives: Duplicative institutional review board/research ethics committee review for multicenter studies may impose administrative burdens and inefficiencies affecting study implementation and quality. Understanding variability in site-specific institutional review board/research ethics committee assessment and barriers to using a single review committee (an increasingly proposed solution) can inform a more efficient process. We provide needed data about the regulatory oversight process for the Sepsis PRevalence, OUtcomes, and Therapies multicenter point prevalence study.

A Social Media Peer Group Intervention for Mothers to Prevent Obesity and Promote Healthy Growth from Infancy: Development and Pilot Trial.

Background: Evidence increasingly indicates that childhood obesity prevention efforts should begin as early as infancy. However, few interventions meet the needs of families whose infants are at increased obesity risk due to factors including income and maternal body mass index (BMI). Social media peer groups may offer a promising new way to provide these families with the knowledge, strategies, and support they need to adopt obesity prevention behaviors.

When is waiver of consent appropriate in a neonatal clinical trial?

It is difficult to do scientifically rigorous research on treatments that must be administered urgently or emergently. Therefore, such treatments are often provided without a strong evidence base. Research would be facilitated if it were permissible to waive the requirement for parental consent.

The development of pediatric critical care medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: an interview with Dr. John J. 'Jack' Downes.

Dr. John J. 'Jack' Downes (1930-), the anesthesiologist-in-chief at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (1972-1996), has made numerous contributions to pediatric anesthesia and critical care medicine through a broad spectrum of research on chronic respiratory failure, status asthmaticus, postoperative risks of apnea in premature infants, and home-assisted mechanical ventilation.

The effect of topical tetracaine eye drops on emergence behavior and pain relief after strabismus surgery.

Introduction: Pediatric strabismus surgery may be associated with postoperative nausea, vomiting, and emergence agitation (restlessness, thrashing, crying, moaning, disorientation). We hypothesize that emergence agitation after strabismus surgery is in part related to pain and that topical tetracaine ophthalmic drops can decrease the intensity and incidence of postoperative pain and emergence agitation.

Methods: Eighty-eight subjects aged 1 to 12 years scheduled for strabismus surgery were enrolled in a double-masked randomized control trial.

The pharmacokinetics of esmolol in pediatric subjects with supraventricular arrhythmias.

Esmolol is often used in the acute management of children with arrhythmias and/or hypertension; however, pharmacokinetic studies of the drug in children have been limited. The objective of this study was to determine the pharmacokinetics of esmolol in children with a history of supraventricular arrhythmias (SVT) who were scheduled for diagnostic electrophysiology study or a catheter ablation procedure. Subjects were stratified into two age groups: 2-11 and 12-16 years.

A comparison of the costs and efficacy of ondansetron and dolasetron in the prophylaxis of postoperative vomiting in pediatric patients undergoing ambulatory surgery.

Unlabelled: Postoperative vomiting (POV) after ambulatory surgery remains a major problem. We designed this study to determine the smallest dose of dolasetron equivalent to the Food and Drug Administration approved dose of ondansetron 100 micro g/kg IV, for the prophylaxis of POV in children undergoing surgery. In this double-blinded controlled study, 204 healthy ASA I-II children aged 2-12 yr, undergoing superficial ambulatory (day-case) surgery, were randomized to receive either ondansetron 100 micro g/kg IV, or dolasetron 45, 175, 350, or 700 micro g/kg IV during a standardized perioperative regimen.

A liberalized fasting guideline for formula-fed infants does not increase average gastric fluid volume before elective surgery.

Unlabelled: Recommended preoperative fasting intervals for infant formula vary from 4 to 8 h. We conducted a prospective, randomized, observer-blinded trial of 97 ASA physical status I and II infants scheduled for elective surgery to determine whether average gastric fluid volume (GFV) recovered from infants formula-fasted for 4 h (liberalized fast, Group L) differed from that recovered from infants allowed clear liquids up until 2 h, but fasted 8 h for formula and solids (traditional fast, Group T). In Group L, 31 of 39 subjects followed protocol and ingested formula 4-6 h before surgery.

An evaluation of the efficacy and tolerability of oral tramadol hydrochloride tablets for the treatment of postsurgical pain in children.

Unlabelled: In this double-blinded, randomized, multicenter study, we examined analgesic efficacy and tolerability of tramadol in postoperative pediatric patients. Eighty-one postsurgical ASA physical status I and II patients ages 7-16 yr received oral tramadol (approximately 1 or 2 mg/kg) for postoperative analgesia when they were ready to transition from morphine patient-controlled analgesia to oral analgesics. Rescue analgesia consisted of morphine patient-controlled analgesia or an oral equivalent dose of oxycodone.

Airway complications of infant botulism: ten-year experience with 60 cases.

Objective: The study goal was to understand the incidence, etiology, and management of airway complications in infant botulism.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of the period from January 1, 1987, to December 31, 1997.

Setting: Urban tertiary care children's hospital.

Rapacuronium and the risk of bronchospasm in pediatric patients.

Unlabelled: We conducted this study to determine the risk factors for the development of bronchospasm after the administration of rapacuronium and to determine if children with bronchospasm on induction of anesthesia were more likely to have received rapacuronium compared with other muscle relaxants. In a retrospective cohort study, all anesthetic records in which rapacuronium was administered were reviewed to determine which patients developed bronchospasm during induction of anesthesia. Two-hundred-eighty-seven patients were identified, of whom 12 (4.

Cisapride does not prevent postoperative vomiting in children.

Unlabelled: The peripherally acting prokinetic drug cisapride can overcome opioid-induced gastrointestinal paresis and may thereby eliminate a stimulus for postoperative vomiting. We conducted a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial of 96 children undergoing inguinal surgery to determine whether cisapride would reduce the incidence of postoperative vomiting after general anesthesia supplemented with morphine. Group C1 patients (n = 38) received cisapride 0.