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Fifty percent of children are anemic after a critical illness. Iatrogenic blood testing may be a contributor to this problem. The objectives of this study were to describe blood sampling practice in a PICU, determine patient factors associated with increased sampling, and examine the association among blood sampling volume, anemia at PICU discharge, and change in hemoglobin from PICU entry to PICU discharge.Prospective observational cohort study.PICU of Sainte-Justine University Hospital.All children consecutively admitted during a 4-month period.Four hundred twenty-three children were enrolled. Mean blood volume sampled was 3.9 (±19) mL/kg/stay, of which 26% was discarded volume. Children with central venous or arterial access were sampled more than those without access (p0.05). Children with sepsis, shock, or cardiac surgery were most sampled, those with a primary respiratory diagnosis; the least (p0.001). We detected a strong association between blood sample volume and mechanical ventilation (H, 81.35; p0.0001), but no association with severity of illness (Worst Pediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction score) (R, -0.044; p = 0.43). Multivariate analysis (n = 314) showed a significant association between the volume of blood sampled (as continuous variable) and anemia at discharge (adjusted OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.18-2.45; p = 0.003). We lacked power to detect an association between blood sampling and change in hemoglobin from PICU admission to PICU discharge.Diagnostic blood sampling in PICU is associated with anemia at discharge. Twenty-five percent of blood losses from sampling is wasted. Volumes are highest for patients with sepsis, shock, or cardiac surgery, and in patients with vascular access or ventilatory support.

Pediatric interfacility transports are frequent. Despite the absence of a formal pediatric transport curriculum in eastern Canada, directly managing patients during transport and medical direction of the referring center and transport team are part of the pediatric critical care medicine (PCCM) and pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) program requirements. The authors developed a pediatric interfacility transport curriculum and measured its impact on fellows' confidence and performance.This was a pilot interventional prospective study in Montreal, Canada. Postcurriculum surveys were used to measure confidence, and high-fidelity simulations were used to measure performance. A target threshold for confidence was defined before implementation, and pre- and post values were compared. The simulation scenario and assessment checklist were locally developed.The participants were 11 PCCM and 3 PEM fellows. The content of the curriculum and educational methods were selected based on the literature and a needs assessment survey. All participants rated themselves as confident at the end of the curriculum. Eighty-three percent of the participants were deemed proficient with a perfect interrater agreement.The pediatric transport curriculum had a positive impact on PEM and PCCM fellows' confidence and performance in transport. Further studies should look at the impact of such a curriculum on participants' real-life performance and patient care.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text., BACKGROUND: Pao2 is the gold standard to assess acute hypoxic respiratory failure, but it is only routinely available by intermittent spot checks, precluding any automatic continuous analysis for bedside tools. OBJECTIVE: To validate a continuous and noninvasive method to estimate hypoxemia severity for all Spo2 values. DERIVATION COHORT: All patients who had an arterial blood gas and simultaneous continuous noninvasive monitoring from 2011 to 2019 at Boston Children’s Hospital (Boston, MA) PICU. VALIDATION COHORT: External cohort at Sainte-Justine Hospital PICU (Montreal, QC, Canada) from 2017 to 2020. PREDICTION MODEL: We estimated the Pao2 using three kinds of neural networks and an empirically optimized mathematical model derived from known physiologic equations. RESULTS: We included 52,879 Pao2 (3,252 patients) in the derivation dataset and 12,047 Pao2 (926 patients) in the validation dataset. The mean function on the last minute before the arterial blood gas had the lowest bias (bias –0.1% validation cohort). A difference greater than or equal to 3% between pulse rate and electrical heart rate decreased the intraclass correlation coefficients (0.75 vs 0.44; p < 0.001) implying measurement noise. Our estimated Pao2 equation had the highest intraclass correlation coefficient (0.38; 95% CI, 0.36–0.39; validation cohort) and outperformed neural networks and existing equations. Using the estimated Pao2 to estimate the oxygenation index showed a significantly better hypoxemia classification (kappa) than oxygenation saturation index for both Spo2 less than or equal to 97% (0.79 vs 0.60; p < 0.001) and Spo2 greater than 97% (0.58 vs 0.52; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The estimated Pao2 using pulse rate and electrical heart rate Spo2 validation allows a continuous and noninvasive estimation of the oxygenation index that is valid for Spo2 less than or equal to 97% and for Spo2 greater than 97%. Display of continuous analysis of estimated Pao2 and estimated oxygenation index may provide decision support to assist with hypoxemia diagnosis and oxygen titration in critically ill patients.

Objectives: Significant resources are devoted to neonatal prolonged mechanical ventilation (NPMV), but little is known about the outcomes in those children. Our primary objective was to describe the NPMV respiratory, digestive, and neurological outcomes at 18 months corrected age. Our second objective was on the early identification of which patients, among the NPMV cohort, will need to be ventilated for ≥125 days, which corresponded to the 75th percentile in the preliminary data, and to describe that subgroup.Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we included all children born between 2004 and 2013 who had a NPMV (≥21 days of invasive or noninvasive respiratory support reached between 40 and 44 weeks of postconceptional age). We used random forests, logistic regression with penalization, naive Bayes, and XGBoost to predict which patients will need ≥125 days of ventilation. We used a Monte Carlo cross validation.Results: We included 164 patients. Of which, 40% (n = 66) were female, and the median gestational age was 29 weeks [interquartile range (IQR): 26–36 weeks] with a bimodal distribution. Median ventilation days were 104 (IQR: 66–139 days). The most frequently associated diagnoses were pulmonary hypertension (43%), early pulmonary dysplasia (41%), and lobar emphysema (37%). At 18 months corrected age, 29% (n = 47) had died, 59% (n = 97) were free of any respiratory support, and 45% (n = 74) were exclusively orally fed. A moderate area under the ROC curve of 0.65 (95% CI: 0.54–0.72) for identifying patients in need of ≥125 days of ventilation at inclusion was achieved by random forests classifiers. Among the 26 measured at inclusion, the most contributive ones were PCO2, inspired O2 concentration, and gestational age. At 18 months corrected age, patients ventilated for ≥125 days had a lower respiratory weaning success (76 vs. 87%, P = 0.05), lower exclusive oral feeding proportion (51 vs. 84%, P < 0.001), and a higher neurological impairment (median Pediatric Cerebral Performance Category score 3 vs. 2, P = 0.008) than patients ventilated for < 125 days.Conclusion: NPMV is a severe condition with a high risk of mortality, neurological impairment, and oral feed delay at 18 months. Most survivors are weaned of any respiratory support. We identified the risk factors that allow for the early identification of the most at-risk children of long-term ventilation with a moderate discrimination.

BACKGROUND:. Pao2 is the gold standard to assess acute hypoxic respiratory failure, but it is only routinely available by intermittent spot checks, precluding any automatic continuous analysis for bedside tools. OBJECTIVE:. To validate a continuous and noninvasive method to estimate hypoxemia severity for all Spo2 values. DERIVATION COHORT:. All patients who had an arterial blood gas and simultaneous continuous noninvasive monitoring from 2011 to 2019 at Boston Children’s Hospital (Boston, MA) PICU. VALIDATION COHORT:. External cohort at Sainte-Justine Hospital PICU (Montreal, QC, Canada) from 2017 to 2020. PREDICTION MODEL:. We estimated the Pao2 using three kinds of neural networks and an empirically optimized mathematical model derived from known physiologic equations. RESULTS:. We included 52,879 Pao2 (3,252 patients) in the derivation dataset and 12,047 Pao2 (926 patients) in the validation dataset. The mean function on the last minute before the arterial blood gas had the lowest bias (bias –0.1% validation cohort). A difference greater than or equal to 3% between pulse rate and electrical heart rate decreased the intraclass correlation coefficients (0.75 vs 0.44; p < 0.001) implying measurement noise. Our estimated Pao2 equation had the highest intraclass correlation coefficient (0.38; 95% CI, 0.36–0.39; validation cohort) and outperformed neural networks and existing equations. Using the estimated Pao2 to estimate the oxygenation index showed a significantly better hypoxemia classification (kappa) than oxygenation saturation index for both Spo2 less than or equal to 97% (0.79 vs 0.60; p < 0.001) and Spo2 greater than 97% (0.58 vs 0.52; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION:. The estimated Pao2 using pulse rate and electrical heart rate Spo2 validation allows a continuous and noninvasive estimation of the oxygenation index that is valid for Spo2 less than or equal to 97% and for Spo2 greater than 97%. Display of continuous analysis of estimated Pao2 and estimated oxygenation index may provide decision support to assist with hypoxemia diagnosis and oxygen titration in critically ill patients.