Frontiers in pediatrics
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2016
ReviewTransportation of Critically Ill Patients on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) may be a life-saving procedure for patients with severe reversible pulmonary or cardiac failure or for patients in need for a bridge to transplantation. ECMO is provided by specialized centers, but patients in need of ECMO are frequently taken care of at other centers. Conventional transports to an ECMO center can be hazardous and deaths have been described. ⋯ Survival of patients transported on ECMO is equivalent to that of non-transported ECMO patients. It is concluded that long-, short-distance interhospital transports on ECMO can be performed safely. The staff should be experienced and highly competent in intensive care, ECMO cannulation, ECMO treatment, intensive care transport, and air transport medicine.
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2016
ReviewNutrition: A Primary Therapy in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
Appropriate nutrition is an essential component of intensive care management of children with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and is linked to patient outcomes. One out of every two children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) will develop malnutrition or have worsening of baseline malnutrition and present with specific micronutrient deficiencies. Early and adequate enteral nutrition (EN) is associated with improved 60-day survival after pediatric critical illness, and, yet, despite early EN guidelines, critically ill children receive on average only 55% of goal calories by PICU day 10. ⋯ Precise nutritional therapies, which are titrated and targeted to preservation of intestinal barrier function, prevention of intestinal dysbiosis, preservation of lean body mass, and blunting of the systemic inflammatory response, offer great potential for improving outcomes of pediatric ARDS. In this review, we examine the current evidence regarding dose, route, and timing of nutrition, current recommendations for provision of nutrition to children with ARDS, and the current literature for immune-modulating diets for pediatric ARDS. We will examine emerging data regarding the role of the intestinal microbiome in modulating the response to critical illness.
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2016
The Spectrum of Congenital Heart Disease with Transposition of the Great Arteries from the Cardiac Registry of the University of Padua.
Transposition of the great arteries (TGA) is a cardiac condition in which the arterial trunks arise from the inappropriate ventricle: the aorta from the right ventricle and the pulmonary trunk from the left ventricle [discordant ventriculo-arterial (VA) connection]. In complete TGA, the discordant VA connection is associated with situs solitus or inversus and concordant atrioventricular (AV) connection. The hemodynamic consequence of these combined connections is that systemic and pulmonary circulations function in "parallel" rather than in "series". ⋯ In these latter conditions, the term "transposition" is still necessary to stress that the great arteries are "transposed" in relation to the ventricular septum (aorta from the right ventricle and pulmonary trunk from the left ventricle) but certainly does not figure out the anatomical complexes named complete or corrected transposition. We reviewed the hearts with discordant VA connection of our Anatomical Collection, consisting of 1,640 specimens with CHD, with the aim to discuss the anatomy and the frequency of the anatomical variants of TGA and to clarify terminology and classification. The knowledge of the precise anatomy of these malformation are really important for clinical diagnosis and surgical planning.
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2016
Comparing Outcomes of Two Types of Bariatric Surgery in an Adolescent Obese Population: Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass vs. Sleeve Gastrectomy.
Obesity is prevalent among adolescents and is associated with serious health consequences. Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) and Sleeve Gastrectomy (SG) are bariatric procedures that cause significant weight loss in adults and are increasingly being performed in adolescents with morbid obesity. Data comparing outcomes of RYGB vs. SG in this age-group are scarce. This study aims to compare short-term (1-6 months) and longer-term (7-18 months) body mass index (BMI) and biochemical outcomes following RYGB and SG in adolescents/young adults. ⋯ RYGB and SG did not differ for the magnitude of BMI reduction across groups, though changes trended higher following RYGB. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.