Radiation Exposure in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Patients: How Much Is Too Much?

We aimed to determine median cumulative radiation exposure in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients, proportion of patients with high radiation exposure (above annual average radiation per person of 6.2 mSv), and determine risk factors for high exposure. This was a retrospective chart review of PICU patients up to 18 years of age admitted to a large community hospital over 2 years.

Knowledge, Beliefs, and Behaviors Related to Palliative Care Delivery Among Pediatric Oncology Health Care Providers.

The care of pediatric patients with cancer and their families is complex and rapidly evolving. Despite significant advances in outcomes, symptoms of the disease and complications of therapy continue to cause suffering that may improve with the involvement of pediatric palliative care (PPC) services. This descriptive study responds to the observation of great variability in PPC utilization within pediatric oncology.

Preemptive Ethanol Lock Therapy in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Patients With Catheter-Associated Bloodstream Infection: Impact on Length of Stay, Cost, and Catheter Salvage.

Background: Ethanol lock therapy (ELT) with systemic antimicrobial therapy is a promising therapy for catheter-related infection (CRI). The impact of ELT timing on treatment efficacy and costs is unknown.

Procedures: A prospective study was conducted in the Hematology/Oncology Unit at the Children's Hospital of Michigan.

The Utility of Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Genotype Detection in the Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infections in Children.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common serious bacterial infection in children with significant morbidity with delayed diagnosis. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is very accurate in detecting bacteria and widely available, but has never been evaluated to detect UTIs in children. To assess the utility of PCR as a rapid diagnostic tool, we conducted a prospective cohort study of 193 urine samples from children younger than 36 months undergoing evaluation for UTI in the emergency department over a 10-month period.

Acceptance of Pharmacist-Driven Antimicrobial Stewardship Recommendations With Differing Levels of Physician Involvement in a Children's Hospital.

This prospective interventional study assessed whether a pharmacist-physician team in a setting where physician support is not provided for daily antimicrobial stewardship (AS) activities would improve later acceptance of pharmacist recommendations once multidisciplinary efforts stopped and the pharmacist again worked alone. This was measured by AS recommendation acceptance rate during 3 study phases wherein AS recommendations were provided by a pharmacist alone (Phase 1), a pharmacist and a physician together (Phase 2), and then a pharmacist alone again (Phase 3). Recommendations were well accepted across all study phases with no differences in recommendation appropriateness or patient clinical outcomes.

Infantile Colic: What to Know for the Primary Care Setting.

Infantile colic is a self-limiting condition characterized by recurrent, prolonged periods of intense crying in an inconsolable infant. The etiology is unknown although many hypotheses have been proposed. Colic can be very frustrating for parents to deal with, thus it is important to provide reassurance and resources.