Withholding life support for children with severe neurological impairment: Prevalence and predictive factors prior to admission in the PICU.

Background: Our study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and predictive factors of withholding life support for children suffering from severe neurological impairment before admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Method: Children under 18 years of age with severe neurological impairment, who were hospitalized between January 2006 and December 2016, were included in this retrospective study. They were allocated to a withholding group or a control group, depending on whether life support was withheld or not, before admission to the PICU.

The effect of two alternative arm supports on shoulder and upper back muscle loading during pipetting.

Objective: Pipetting involves static upper arm positions with the pipette held away from the body for sustained periods of time, putting increased musculoskeletal load on the shoulder and upper back. This study explores the effect of using two alternative arm supports while pipetting on muscle loading in the shoulder/neck region.

Participants: 15 experienced pipette users participated in this study.