Pediatric Cardiac Emergencies: When to Worry and When to Reassure.

Cardiac symptoms are a frequent reason for pediatric patients to present to the emergency department. As stressful as these visits can be for both parents and inexperienced providers, many of these symptoms may have a benign explanation, and recognition of red flags are of the utmost importance to provide optimal care. In this article, we present four clinical scenarios that have a cardiac etiology and are common to the pediatric emergency department.

Development of pediatric multidisciplinary extracorporeal membrane oxygenation simulations: A novel educational program to enhance team communication and emergency preparedness.

Introduction: Pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a high risk, low-volume technology. Infrequency of this technology and associated complications may translate to unfamiliarity of identification and management of potentially life-threatening events, which may require knowledge and procedural skills to be performed quickly. Providers involved in managing ECMO must be able to promptly identify and initiate management for such events, particularly when surgical colleagues are not readily available.

Heterotaxy Syndrome and Intestinal Rotation Abnormalities.

Background: Infants with heterotaxy syndrome (HS) have abnormal lateralization of organs along the right-left body axis. Intestinal rotation abnormalities (IRAs) are a potential source of morbidity and mortality. For this study, our objective was to prospectively observe a cohort of infants with HS and determine the incidence and natural history of IRA.

Post-cardiotomy extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation in neonates with complex single ventricle: analysis of outcomes.

Objective: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) in children with cardiac arrest refractory to conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has been reported with encouraging results. We sought to review outcomes of neonates with functional single ventricle (FSV) receiving post-cardiotomy ECPR.

Methods: Forty-eight patients who required post-cardiotomy extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) since the introduction of our ECPR protocol (January 2007-December 2009) were identified.