Pediatric urolithiasis--does body mass index influence stone presentation and treatment?

Purpose: Pediatric obesity is a major public health concern in the United States. We investigated the association of body mass index with presentation and outcome in children with urolithiasis.

Materials And Methods: We identified all patients 2 to 18 years old at our institution with a radiographically confirmed first renal or ureteral stone between January 2003 and June 2008.

A "smart needle" to facilitate difficult vascular access in pediatric patients.

A new Doppler probe inside a needle was evaluated in a group of infants and children to assess its suitability for subclavian venous access. While the efficient use of this device required learning a new technique, we found the device useful to accurately locate the subclavian vein and differentiate it from the artery in all patients weighing more than 3 kg. This device will be most helpful in cases of difficult access, eg, scar from previous access, obesity, or edema.