Understanding the private worlds of physicians, nurses, and parents: a study of life-sustaining treatment decisions in Italian paediatric critical care.

This study's aim was to describe: (a) How life-sustaining treatment (LST) decisions are made for critically ill children in Italy; and (b) How these decisional processes are experienced by physicians, nurses and parents. Focus groups with 16 physicians and 26 nurses, and individual interviews with 9 parents were conducted. Findings uncovered the 'private worlds' of paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) physicians, nurses and parents; they all suffer tremendously and privately.

Postpneumonectomy-like syndrome in an infant with right lung agenesis and left main bronchus hypoplasia.

We report a 1-year-old child born with agenesis of the right lung who sustained an episode of acute respiratory failure related to a postpneumonectomy-like syndrome, with severe mediastinal shift and subsequent stretching and stenosis of the left main bronchus. The insertion of an expandable prosthesis in the right empty pleural space markedly improved the patient's clinical condition.

Procalcitonin for the diagnosis of early-onset neonatal sepsis: a multilevel probabilistic approach.

Objectives: To compare the accuracy of procalcitonin (PCT) in early-onset neonatal sepsis (EOS) using standard cut-off values and a multilevel probabilistic approach.

Design And Methods: A retrospective study of PCT was performed in 149 newborns at risk of EOS, including preterm or prolonged rupture of membranes, chorioamnionitis or maternal infection, GBS colonization and signs of fetal distress. PCT values were analysed according to time of assay, i.