Children's Oncology Group's 2023 blueprint for research: Surgery.

Surgery plays a crucial role in the treatment of children with solid malignancies. A well-conducted operation is often essential for cure. Collaboration with the primary care team is important for determining if and when surgery should be performed, and if performed, an operation must be done in accordance with well-established standards.

Food Insecurity and Pediatric Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Severity.

Objective: To determine the association between food insecurity and pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Methods: Cross-sectional study of patients < 21 years of age with histologically confirmed NAFLD. The Household Food Security Survey Module was administered to determine food insecurity status.

Counseling for opioids prescribed at discharge of hospitalized adolescent trauma patients.

Background: Expert consensus recommends prescription opioid safety counseling be provided when prescribing an opioid. This may be especially important for youth with preexistent alcohol and other drug (AOD) use who are at higher risk of developing opioid use disorder. This study examined the frequency that adolescent trauma patients prescribed opioids at hospital discharge received counseling and if this differed by adolescents' AOD use.

Rare Tumors: Opportunities and challenges from the Children's Oncology Group perspective.

While all childhood cancers are rare, tumors that are particularly infrequent or underrepresented within pediatrics are studied under the umbrella of the Children's Oncology Group Rare Tumor committee, divided into the Retinoblastoma and Infrequent Tumor subcommittees. The Infrequent Tumor subcommittee has traditionally included an emphasis on globally rare tumors such as adrenocortical carcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or those tumors that are rare in young children, despite being common in adolescents and young adults, such as colorectal carcinoma, thyroid carcinoma, and melanoma. Pleuropulmonary blastoma, gonadal stromal tumors, pancreatic tumors including pancreatoblastoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, nonmelanoma skin cancers, neuroendocrine tumors, and desmoplastic small round cell tumors, as well as other carcinomas are also included under the heading of the Children's Oncology Group Rare Tumor committee.

Antithrombin activity and central venous catheter-associated thrombosis in critically ill children at high risk of bleeding.

Background: Normalization of antithrombin activity may prevent catheter-associated thrombosis in critically ill children at high risk of bleeding.

Objectives: To characterize the temporal pattern of antithrombin activity, assess its association with catheter-associated thrombosis and clinically relevant bleeding, and evaluate its relationship with thrombin generation in these children.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, critically ill children <18 years old at high risk of bleeding with central venous catheter were eligible.

The Clinical Utility of Antroduodenal Manometry in the Evaluation of Children with Upper Gastrointestinal Symptoms.

Objectives: Antroduodenal manometry (ADM) measures antral and small bowel motility and is clinically used to evaluate upper gastrointestinal (UGI) symptoms. We aimed to evaluate its utility in guiding treatment, predicting response, and association with clinical findings.

Methods: Retrospective review of 200 children undergoing ADM.

Anatomy, physiology, and evaluation: Bowel, bladder, and sexual disorders.

Our present understanding of bowel and bladder control has changed dramatically with the introduction of functional imagining technologies such as PET, SPECT, fMRI scanning, and near-infrared spectroscopy of the brain. Urologists tend to see control of urination and defecation as processes that occurred at or below the level of the pons for the most part. In this chapter, we examine the control of storing and emptying of urine and stool from what will be a more neurocentric perspective, integrating the frontal lobes into the process and moving beyond the pons on which most of the literature has focused in the past.

Implications of Immunotherapy for Pediatric Malignancies: A Summary from the APSA Cancer Committee.

Although survival for many pediatric cancers has improved with advances in conventional chemotherapeutic regimens and surgical techniques in the last several decades, it remains a leading cause of disease-related death in children. Outcomes in patients with recurrent, refractory, or metastatic disease are especially poor. Recently, the advent of alternative classes of therapies, including immunotherapies, have revolutionized systemic treatment for pediatric malignancies.

Children's Oncology Group's 2023 blueprint for research: Rare tumors.

The Children's Oncology Group (COG) Rare Tumor Committee includes the Infrequent Tumor and Retinoblastoma subcommittees, encompassing a wide range of extracranial solid tumors that do not fall within another COG disease committee. Current therapeutic trial development focuses on nasopharyngeal carcinoma, adrenocortical carcinoma, pleuropulmonary blastoma, colorectal carcinoma, melanoma, and thyroid carcinoma. Given the rarity of these tumors, novel strategies and international collaborative efforts are necessary to advance research and improve outcomes.

Assessment of health-care workers' attitudes, knowledge, and skills in the care of critically ill Muslim children in New York.

Objectives: Pediatric health-care workers often care for families of minority religious backgrounds, but little is known about their perspective in providing culturally and spiritually appropriate care for Muslim patients. We aimed to (1) characterize the attitudes, knowledge, and skills of health-care workers in the care of critically ill Muslim children and (2) evaluate preferences for different educational interventions to improve care of critically ill Muslim children.

Methods: We administered a single-center, cross-sectional, 33-question, electronic survey of interdisciplinary health-care workers in a large pediatric intensive care unit in New York City to characterize their attitudes, knowledge, and skills in caring for critically ill Muslim children.

Type 3 Laryngeal Clefts Presenting with Upper Airway Obstruction without Aspiration.

Traditionally, otolaryngologists are taught that the defining clinical feature of a laryngeal cleft is aspiration. However, in a small subset of patients-even those with extensive clefts-the sole presenting feature may be airway obstruction. Here, we report two cases of type III laryngeal clefts that presented with upper airway obstruction without aspiration.

Bundled Care to Reduce Sepsis Mortality: The Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes (IPSO) Collaborative.

Objectives: We sought to improve utilization of a sepsis care bundle and decrease 3- and 30- day sepsis-attributable mortality, as well as determine which care elements of a sepsis bundle are associated with improved outcomes.

Methods: Children's Hospital Association formed a QI collaborative to Improve Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes (IPSO) (January 2017-March 2020 analyzed here). IPSO Suspected Sepsis (ISS) patients were those without organ dysfunction where the provider "intended to treat" sepsis.

A dynamic Norwood mortality estimation: Characterizing individual, updated, predicted mortality trajectories after the Norwood operation.

Objective: Post-Norwood mortality remains high and unpredictable. Current models for mortality do not incorporate interstage events. We sought to determine the association of time-related interstage events, along with (pre)operative characteristics, with death post-Norwood and subsequently predict individual mortality.

De-escalation Techniques for the Agitated Pediatric Patient.

The emergency department can be a particularly challenging environment for the care of pediatric patients presenting with acute agitation. Agitation is a behavioral emergency requiring prompt intervention. Timely recognition of agitation and proactive implementation of de-escalation strategies are critical for safe and effective management of agitation, as well as prevention of recurrent episodes.

A Targeted Analysis of Serial Cytokine Measures and Nonpulmonary Organ System Failure in Children With Acute Respiratory Failure: Individual Measures and Trajectories Over Time.

Objectives: There is a need for research exploring the temporal trends of nonpulmonary organ dysfunction (NPOD) and biomarkers in order to identify unique predictive or prognostic phenotypes. We examined the associations between the number and trajectories of NPODs and plasma biomarkers of early and late inflammatory cascade activation, specifically plasma interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) and interleukin-8 (IL-8), respectively, in the setting of acute respiratory failure (ARF).

Design: Secondary analysis of the Randomized Evaluation for Sedation Titration for Respiratory Failure clinical trial and Biomarkers in Acute Lung Injury (BALI) ancillary study.

Hybrid palliation versus nonhybrid management for a multi-institutional cohort of infants with critical left heart obstruction.

Objective: To compare patient characteristics and overall survival for infants with critical left heart obstruction after hybrid palliation (bilateral pulmonary artery banding with or without ductal stenting) versus nonhybrid management (eg, Norwood, primary transplantation, biventricular repair, or transcatheter/surgical aortic valvotomy).

Methods: From 2005 to 2019, 1045 infants in the Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society critical left heart obstruction cohort underwent interventions across 28 institutions. Using a balancing score propensity analysis, 214 infants who underwent hybrid palliation and 831 infants who underwent nonhybrid management were proportionately matched regarding variables significantly associated with mortality and variables noted to significantly differ between groups.

Improving Early Colostrum Administration to Very Low Birth Weight Infants in a Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Objective: To improve our human milk practices by increasing early and sustained use of colostrum as oral immune therapy (OIT) in very low birthweight (VLBW) infants admitted at a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit.

Study Design: Using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Model for Improvement, several interventions aimed at increasing early OIT administration were implemented. Four key drivers included: optimizing evidence-based OIT guidelines, personnel alignment and engagement, optimal electronic health record use for ordering practices, and timely lactation consultant involvement.

Outcomes and Resource Utilization Associated with Use of Routine Pre-Discharge White Blood Cell Count for Clinical Decision-Making in Children with Complicated Appendicitis: A Multicenter Hospital-Level Analysis.

Background: The objective was to explore the hospital-level relationship between routine pre-discharge WBC utilization (RPD-WBC) and outcomes in children with complicated appendicitis.

Methods: Multicenter analysis of NSQIP-Pediatric data from 14 consortium hospitals augmented with RPD-WBC data. WBC were considered routine if obtained within one day of discharge in children who did not develop an organ space infection (OSI) or fever during the index admission.

Trauma-informed and family-centered paediatric resuscitation: Defining domains and practices.

Aim: For paediatric patients and families, resuscitation can be an extremely stressful experience with significant medical and psychological consequences. Psychological sequelae may be reduced when healthcare teams apply patient- and family-centered care and trauma-informed care, yet there are few specific instructions for effective family-centered or trauma-informed behaviours that are observable and teachable. We aimed to develop a framework and tools to address this gap.

Pediatric Neurogastroenterology and Motility Disorders: What Role Does Endoscopy Play?

Although pediatric neurogastroenterology and motility (PNGM) disorders are prevalent, often debilitating, and remain challenging to diagnose and treat, this field has made remarkable progress in the last decade. Diagnostic and therapeutic gastrointestinal endoscopy emerged as a valuable tool in the management of PNGM disorders. Novel modalities such as functional lumen imaging probe, per-oral endoscopic myotomy, gastric-POEM, and electrocautery incisional therapy have changed the diagnostic and therapeutic landscape of PNGM.