Pediatric emergency care
-
Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2024
Development and Internal Validation of a Multivariable Prediction Model to Predict Repeat Attendances in the Pediatric Emergency Department: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
Unplanned reattendances to the pediatric emergency department (PED) occur commonly in clinical practice. Multiple factors influence the decision to return to care, and understanding risk factors may allow for better design of clinical services. We developed a clinical prediction model to predict return to the PED within 72 hours from the index visit. ⋯ We developed and internally validated a clinical prediction model for unplanned reattendance to the PED using routinely collected clinical data, including markers of socioeconomic deprivation. This model allows for easy identification of children at the greatest risk of return to PED.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2024
Smartphone App PACOM to Provide Advice Regarding Self-Triage for the Acute Primary Care Needs of Children: Accuracy of Algorithms.
We developed a phone app, PACOM (Parents Application Conseils et Orientation Médicale), to provide medical advice to caregivers based on several algorithms and a series of binary questions related to children's symptoms. We compared the recommendations of the PACOM algorithms and clinicians for children visiting the emergency department (ED). ⋯ The PACOM algorithms has high sensitivity but low specificity for reducing ED visits and calls for urgent medical support.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Apr 2024
Test Characteristics of Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Children With Preexisting Cardiac Conditions.
The aim of the study is to assess diagnostic performance of cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) performed by pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians in children with preexisting cardiac disease. ⋯ Cardiac POCUS demonstrates good sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing pericardial effusion and left ventricular systolic dysfunction in children with preexisting cardiac conditions when technically adequate studies are obtained. These findings support future studies of cardiac POCUS in children with preexisting cardiac conditions presenting to the ED.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Sep 2023
Observational StudyStroke Volume Measurements by Echocardiography and Ultrasonic Cardiac Output Monitor in Children: A Prospective Observational Cohort Study.
Stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output monitoring is a cornerstone of hemodynamic assessment. Noninvasive technologies are increasingly used in children. This study compared SV measurements obtained by transcutaneous Doppler ultrasound techniques (ultrasonic cardiac output monitor [USCOM]), transthoracic echocardiography jugular (TTE-J), and parasternal (TTE-P) views performed by pediatric intensivists (OP-As) with limited training in cardiac sonography (20 previous examinations) and pediatric cardiologists (OP-Bs) with limited training in USCOM (30 previous examinations) in spontaneously ventilating children. ⋯ Our findings show that the methods are not interchangeable because SV values by USCOM are higher in comparison with the SV values obtained by TTE. Both methods have low level of intraobserver variability. The SV measurements obtained by TTE-P were significantly lower compared with the TTE-J for the operator with limited training in echocardiography. The TTE-P requires longer practice compared with the TTE-J; therefore, we recommend to prefer TTE-J to TTE-P for inexperienced operators.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Mar 2024
Utilization of Transport Data to Decrease Unnecessarily Repeated Laboratory Tests.
In pediatric patients being transported for management of diabetic ketoacidosis, laboratory tests will frequently be trended throughout transportation and subsequently immediately repeated upon arrival to a particular institution. These laboratory tests may not add value to a patient's care trajectory and therefore may be unnecessary. This study examines differences between pH, sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, and glucose levels drawn during transportation and those drawn at our home institution immediately upon arrival to determine if repeating those laboratory tests upon arrival to the emergency department serves any purpose in adding to patient care. ⋯ Although there were some statistically significant differences between the laboratory value sets, it is arguable whether there are any clinically significant differences between them.Based on our failure to show a clinically significant difference between laboratory values drawn during transportation and those drawn immediately upon presentation to the institution, repeating laboratory draws after transportation do not add value to a patient's care trajectory. We should therefore rely on the laboratory values that were drawn from our transportation teams as part of the continuum of patient care.