The Road to Transfusion-free Craniosynostosis Repair in Children Less Than 24 Months Old: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Introduction: Pediatric craniofacial reconstruction has historically resulted in extensive blood loss necessitating transfusion. This single-center quality improvement initiative evaluates the impact of perioperative practice changes on the allogeneic transfusion rate for children 24 months and younger of age undergoing craniofacial reconstruction.

Methods: At project initiation, an appointed core group of anesthesiologists provided all intraoperative anesthetic care for patients undergoing craniofacial reconstruction.

Improving the Compliance of Intraoperative Antibiotic Redosing: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Introduction: At Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, the intraoperative antibiotic redosing guidelines and the time frame considered compliant for redosing were unclear. This lack of clarity plus an ill-defined process for ensuring intraoperative antibiotic redosing resulted in a compliance rate of 11%. The organization's surgical site infection (SSI) rate was 3.

Cardiovascular collapse with attempted pericardial drain withdrawal.

Cardiac tamponade is a rare but serious emergency condition in the pediatric population. As treatment, a pericardial drain is often placed to evacuate the fluid. We present a case of a 4-year-old girl with cardiac tamponade secondary to renal failure.