Publications by authors named "Schlapbach L"

Introduction: Children represent a large and vulnerable patient group. However, the evidence base for most paediatric diagnostic and therapeutic procedures remains limited or is often inferred from adults. There is an urgency to improve paediatric healthcare provision based on real-world evidence generation.

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  • This study investigates the effects of vitamin C and hydrocortisone on pediatric sepsis, aiming to improve survival rates without the need for inotropes/vasopressors.
  • The RESPOND trial is a randomized, open-label study involving nine PICUs in Australia and New Zealand, focusing on children under 18 with suspected or confirmed sepsis.
  • It will assess outcomes such as time alive without inotropic support, mortality rates, and quality of life, involving 384 patients to generate robust data for better treatment strategies.
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Paediatric critical care units are designed for children at a vulnerable stage of development, yet the evidence base for practice and policy in paediatric critical care remains scarce. In this Health Policy, we present a roadmap providing strategic guidance for international paediatric critical care trials. We convened a multidisciplinary group of 32 paediatric critical care experts from six continents representing paediatric critical care research networks and groups.

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Background: Intravenous arginine vasopressin is increasingly used for the treatment of critically ill children. It bears the risk of hyponatraemia with potential severe long-term sequelae, but data on hyponatraemia as a side effect of continuous vasopressin infusion for paediatric intensive care patients is scarce.

Methods: In this retrospective analysis performed at a tertiary care paediatric intensive care unit with 2000 annual admissions, patients were included if they were treated with intravenous vasopressin between 2016 and 2022.

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Objectives: Infections represent a major risk for critically ill neonatal and paediatric patients requiring extracorporeal life-saving support such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and/or continuous renal replacement therapies (CRRT). Patient outcomes rely on achieving target antimicrobial concentrations. In critically ill adults on extracorporeal support, suboptimal antimicrobial concentrations have been shown to be common.

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  • * Children are particularly vulnerable to sepsis due to their unique physiological responses, necessitating focused interventions for early recognition and treatment.
  • * Effective quality improvement efforts for paediatric sepsis are limited worldwide; comprehensive programs must address prevention, awareness, and long-term support to enhance outcomes and foster global collaboration.
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  • * Pediatric patients have unique vulnerabilities to sepsis due to factors like their developing immune systems, genetic predispositions, and differing environmental influences, which make their management different from adults.
  • * Effective treatment for pediatric sepsis focuses on diagnosis, early resuscitation, and advanced care, but there are significant gaps in research and quality improvement efforts, with digital health offering potential solutions to enhance care and outcomes.
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Sepsis is a dysregulated host response to infection that leads to life-threatening organ dysfunction. Half of the 50 million people affected by sepsis globally every year are neonates and children younger than 19 years. This burden on the paediatric population translates into a disproportionate impact on global child health in terms of years of life lost, morbidity, and lost opportunities for children to reach their developmental potential.

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The digitisation of health care is offering the promise of transforming the management of paediatric sepsis, which is a major source of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. Digital technology is already making an impact in paediatric sepsis, but is almost exclusively benefiting patients in high-resource health-care settings. However, digital tools can be highly scalable and cost-effective, and-with the right planning-have the potential to reduce global health disparities.

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Background: Pediatric sepsis remains a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite advancements in modern medicine, it accounts for more than 3 million childhood deaths per year. Multiple studies have emphasized that sex and gender have an impact on the treatment and outcome of various diseases.

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Sepsis affects 25 million children per year globally, leading to 2.9 million deaths and substantial disability in survivors. Extensive characterization of interactions between the host and bacteria in children is required to design novel preventive and therapeutic strategies tailored to this age group.

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  • Antibiotic overtreatment in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) is linked to increased multidrug resistance, leading to higher morbidity and mortality rates among patients globally.
  • A retrospective study analyzed antibiotic usage in a single-center PICU from 2019 to 2021, involving 2,041 patients with a median age of 10 months, and found that antibiotic exposure was rising, averaging 59.8 days of therapy (DOT) per 100 patient days.
  • The study highlighted that the highest antibiotic usage occurred in the youngest patients, those with longer stays in the ICU, specific diagnoses, and in cases resulting in death, indicating a need for better data reporting and further research to improve benchmarking efforts.
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  • A 3-year study in five Australian children's hospitals found that Gram-negative bloodstream infections (GNBSIs) significantly affect children under 5, often occurring in those with existing health issues and central venous catheters.
  • Out of 931 infection episodes involving 818 children, community onset was common, and 71% of cases involved antibiotic-resistant pathogens, particularly from the Enterobacterales family.
  • The study highlighted a 3% in-hospital mortality rate, with infections involving third-generation cephalosporin resistant Enterobacterales linked to higher mortality rates, suggesting a need for improved prevention and treatment strategies.
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Objectives: In trials of acute severe infections or inflammations frequent administration of non-randomised treatment (ie, intercurrent event) in response to clinical events is expected. These events may affect the interpretation of trial findings. Swissped-RECOVERY was set up as one of the first randomised controlled trials worldwide, investigating the comparative effectiveness of anti-inflammatory treatment with intravenous methylprednisolone or intravenous immunoglobulins in children and adolescents with Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally Associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS).

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Sepsis is a life-threatening disease caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, resulting in 11 million deaths globally each year. Vascular endothelial cell dysfunction results in the loss of endothelial barrier integrity, which contributes to sepsis-induced multiple organ failure and mortality. Erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular carcinoma (Eph) receptors and their ephrin ligands play a key role in vascular endothelial barrier disruption but are currently not a therapeutic target in sepsis.

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Background: Sepsis is defined as dysregulated host response to infection that leads to life-threatening organ dysfunction. Biomarkers characterising the dysregulated host response in sepsis are lacking. We aimed to develop host gene expression signatures to predict organ dysfunction in children with bacterial or viral infection.

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Purpose: Early recognition and effective treatment of sepsis improves outcomes in critically ill patients. However, antibiotic exposures are frequently suboptimal in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. We describe the feasibility of the Bayesian dosing software Individually Designed Optimum Dosing Strategies (ID-ODS™), to reduce time to effective antibiotic exposure in children and adults with sepsis in ICU.

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Background: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare but serious hyperinflammatory complication following infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The mechanisms underpinning the pathophysiology of MIS-C are poorly understood. Moreover, clinically distinguishing MIS-C from other childhood infectious and inflammatory conditions, such as Kawasaki disease or severe bacterial and viral infections, is challenging due to overlapping clinical and laboratory features.

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