Emerg Med Australas
February 2025
Objective: Intranasal (IN) fentanyl and nitrous oxide (NO) can be combined to provide procedural sedation and analgesia to children. This combination is advantageous because of rapid onset of action and non-parenteral administration, but is associated with increased vomiting. We sought to describe the associations of demographic and procedural factors with early vomiting when using this combination in children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Information on the medium-term recovery of children with Bell palsy or acute idiopathic lower motor neuron facial paralysis is limited.
Methods: We followed up children aged 6 months to <18 years with Bell palsy for 12 months after completion of a randomized trial on the use of prednisolone. We assessed facial function using the clinician-administered House-Brackmann scale and the modified parent-administered House-Brackmann scale.
Objective: To describe the prevalence and severity of pain experienced by children with Bell's palsy over the first 6 months of illness and its association with the severity of facial paralysis.
Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data obtained in a phase III, triple-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of prednisolone for the treatment of Bell's palsy in children aged 6 months to <18 years conducted between 13 October 2015 and 23 August 2020 in Australia and New Zealand. Children were recruited within 72 hours of symptom onset and pain was assessed using a child-rated visual analogue scale (VAS), a child-rated Faces Pain Score-Revised (FPS-R) and/or a parent-rated VAS at baseline, and at 1, 3 and 6 months until recovered, and are reported combined across treatment groups.
Objective: Currently there is no parent administered scale for facial nerve function in children. We set out to assess the agreement between a newly developed parent-administered modified version of the House-Brackmann (HB) scale and the standard clinician-administered HB scale in children with Bell's palsy.
Study Design: Secondary analysis of a triple-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of corticosteroids to treat idiopathic facial paralysis (Bell's palsy) in children (6 months to <18 years).
Background And Objectives: Corticosteroids are used to treat the early stages of idiopathic facial paralysis (Bell palsy) in children, but their effectiveness is uncertain. We set out to determine whether prednisolone improves the proportion of children with Bell palsy with complete recovery at 1 month.
Methods: We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of prednisolone in children presenting to emergency departments with Bell palsy.
Emerg Med Australas
February 2022
Objective: Intraosseous (IO) needle insertion is an effective method to obtain circulatory access in unwell children.
Methods: We conducted a 12-month retrospective record review of children aged less than 18 years who had a recorded IO attempt by Ambulance Victoria paramedics.
Results: Sixty-five children underwent IO attempt during pre-hospital care, 60 had IO outcome recorded and were included.
J Paediatr Child Health
April 2022
Aim: The risk of serious illness in febrile infants (<60 days old) is high, and so fever often warrants aggressive management. Infrared thermometers are unreliable in young infants despite their ubiquity. We aim to describe the: (i) frequency of infrared thermometer usage; (ii) progression to documented fever in the emergency department (ED) and (iii) rate of serious illness (meningitis, urinary tract infection and bacteremia).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Forearm fractures are common pediatric injuries. Most displaced or angulated fractures can be managed via closed reduction in the operating room or in the Emergency Department (ED). Previous research has shown that emergency physicians can successfully perform closed reduction within ED; however, the fracture morphology amendable to ED physician reduction is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Preseptal cellulitis can be difficult to distinguish from orbital cellulitis in children. The majority of patients with periorbital infections are admitted for intravenous antibiotics. This study aimed to investigate the risk of missing orbital cellulitis and the outcomes of missed patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare the treatment practices (immobilisation vs non-immobilisation) of toddler fractures and other minor tibial fractures (both proven and suspected) in preschoolers, aged 9 months-4 years, and examine rates of ED re-presentations and complications.
Methods: Retrospective chart review of presentations of minor tibial fractures, both proven (radiologically confirmed) or suspected (negative X-ray but clinical evidence of bony injury), in children aged 9 months-4 years presenting to a single tertiary level paediatric ED from May 2016 to April 2018. Data collected included treatment practices, subsequent unscheduled re-presentations (including reasons) and complications (defined as problems relating to the injury that required further active care).
Study Objective: Intranasal fentanyl and inhaled nitrous oxide are increasingly combined to provide procedural sedation and analgesia in the pediatric emergency setting. This regimen is attractive because of its nonparenteral administration, but is associated with a higher incidence of vomiting than nitrous oxide alone. We seek to assess whether prophylactic oral ondansetron use could reduce the incidence of vomiting associated with intranasal fentanyl and nitrous oxide for procedural sedation compared with placebo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy after hospital admission is increasingly popular, but its use to avoid admission to hospital altogether by treating patients wholly as outpatients remains uncommon in children. One reason for the low use of treatment at home is the scarcity of evidence of its cost-effectiveness. In this planned follow-up analysis of the Cellulitis at Home or Inpatient in Children from the Emergency Department (CHOICE) trial, we aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of an admission avoidance pathway, in which children were treated at home, compared with standard hospital care for the intravenous treatment of moderate or severe cellulitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: While cervical spine injuries (CSIs) are rare in the paediatric population, presentations to EDs with possible neck injuries are common. Based on a lack of Australian data we set out to determine how many possible injuries are clinically cleared, what imaging is used on the remainder and the incidence and characteristics of confirmed paediatric CSIs.
Methods: We undertook a retrospective electronic medical record review of children <18 years with potential CSIs at a large tertiary paediatric trauma centre in Victoria, Australia over a 12 month period (annual census 87 000).
Emerg Med Australas
February 2020
Objective: To describe the effect of fluid bolus therapy (FBT) on blood pressure in children with sepsis. Secondary outcomes included the effect of FBT on systemic vascular resistance, shock index and shock phenotype (warm or cold).
Methods: This was a prospective observational study in the ED of The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of a virtual reality distraction for needle pain in 2 common hospital settings: the emergency department (ED) and outpatient pathology (ie, outpatient laboratory). The control was standard of care (SOC) practice.
Study Design: In 2 clinical trials, we randomized children aged 4-11 years undergoing venous needle procedures to virtual reality or SOC at 2 tertiary Australian hospitals.
Background: Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy in children is common despite no evidence of its efficacy or safety from clinical trials. We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of intravenous antibiotic therapy at home with that of standard treatment in hospital for children with moderate to severe cellulitis.
Methods: The Cellulitis at Home or Inpatient in Children from the Emergency Department (CHOICE) trial was a randomised, controlled, non-inferiority trial in children aged 6 months to 18 years who presented to the emergency department at The Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne, VIC, Australia) with uncomplicated moderate to severe cellulitis.
Unlabelled: : media-1vid110.1542/5972298232001PEDS-VA_2018-1420 BACKGROUND: The evidence is unclear about the optimal route of treatment for children with cellulitis, specifically how to assess the risk of moderate-to-severe cellulitis requiring intravenous (IV) antibiotics. We aimed to derive and validate a cellulitis risk assessment scoring system to guide providers as to which patients require IV antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Paediatr Open
January 2018
Introduction: Intranasal fentanyl and nitrous oxide (NO) can be combined to create a non-parenteral procedural sedation regimen for children in the paediatric emergency department. This combination of intranasal fentanyl and NO provides effective pain relief for more painful procedures, but is associated with a higher incidence of vomiting than NO alone. Our aim is to assess whether ondansetron used preventatively reduces the incidence of vomiting associated with intranasal fentanyl and NO for procedural sedation compared with placebo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy offers the option of treating children requiring intravenous antibiotics for acute urinary tract infection (UTI)/pyelonephritis at home. We aimed to determine the outcomes of treating patients with UTI/pyelonephritis using outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy directly from the emergency department (ED) without admission to hospital.
Methods: This was a retrospective study (August 2012-July 2016) of children with UTI/pyelonephritis treated with parenteral antibiotics via a peripheral cannula directly from ED to home under a hospital-in-the home (HITH) program.
Objective: Children with moderate/severe cellulitis requiring intravenous antibiotics are usually admitted to hospital. Admission avoidance is attractive but there are few data in children. We implemented a new pathway for children to be treated with intravenous antibiotics at home and aimed to describe the characteristics of patients treated on this pathway and in hospital and to evaluate the outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Clean catch urine (CCU) collection is commonly used in pre-continent children. CCU can be time-consuming and specimens may be contaminated. Our aim was to determine the time taken for CCU attempts and to describe the success of this method in diagnosing or excluding urinary tract infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo determine if a simple stimulation method increases the rate of infant voiding for clean catch urine within five minutes. Randomised controlled trial. Emergency department of a tertiary paediatric hospital, Australia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF