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Introduction: Acute bronchiolitis epidemics are known to destabilize healthcare structures and stand as a major public health issue. Our tertiary care regional university hospital designed an organizational infrastructure paediatric plan (OIPP) to adapt to bronchiolitis epidemics. This study aimed to assess the impact of the OIPP on the length of stay and quality of care of children hospitalized for bronchiolitis., Methods: This epidemiological study analyzed data from 2 epidemic seasons before and after the OIPP implementation. The OIPP used a standardized algorithm of patient orientation and a 4-level stratification of care., Results: A total of 1636 children were included in the study, with 718 children before and 918 children after the OIPP implementation. The length of stay significantly decreased after the OIPP implementation, from 5.1±6.8 days to 3.9±3 days (P<0.001). The 30-day readmission for bronchiolitis remained stable (4.6% vs. 3.4%, P=0.2). The net annual patient service revenue increased from 1,292,532 € to 1,545,720 €., Conclusion: The implementation of the OIPP resulted in a significant decrease in the average hospital length of stay. This plan improved patients' quality of care while maintained a balanced budget., Trial Registration Number: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03663660., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To assess the effect of heliox, a helium-oxygen mixture, on respiratory distress symptoms in young infants., Design: Prospective, randomized, double-blind study., Setting: Pediatric ICU (PICU) of a university hospital., Patients: Twenty infants, all < 3 months old, admitted to the PICU with moderate-to-severe acute respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis., Interventions: All infants were randomly and blindly assigned to inhale either heliox or an air-oxygen mixture (airox) for 1 h under an oxyhood., Measurements and Results: After 1 h, the respiratory distress score was significantly lower in the heliox group compared with the airox group (3.05 vs 5.5, p < 0.01), with a significant reduction in accessory muscles use (p < 0.05) and expiratory wheezing (p < 0.01). In contrast, inspiratory breath sounds and cyanosis did not significantly differ between groups. The ex-premature infants of the heliox group had a higher respiratory distress score at baseline compared with the term infants of this group (5.8 vs 5.2, p < 0.05) and a comparable decrease in the score at 60 min., Conclusions: In young infants, even those born prematurely, heliox breathing induced a rapid reduction in accessory muscles use and expiratory wheezing. Further studies are needed to confirm the decreased respiratory muscle work of breathing during heliox inhalation in this population.

Purpose: Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) is currently the gold standard for respiratory support for moderate to severe acute viral bronchiolitis (AVB). Although oxygen delivery via high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) is increasingly used, evidence of its efficacy and safety is lacking in infants.Methods: A randomized controlled trial was performed in five pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) to compare 7 cmH2O nCPAP with 2 L/kg/min oxygen therapy administered with HFNC in infants up to 6 months old with moderate to severe AVB. The primary endpoint was the percentage of failure within 24 h of randomization using prespecified criteria. To satisfy noninferiority, the failure rate of HFNC had to lie within 15% of the failure rate of nCPAP. Secondary outcomes included success rate after crossover, intubation rate, length of stay, and serious adverse events.Results: From November 2014 to March 2015, 142 infants were included and equally distributed into groups. The risk difference of -19% (95% CI -35 to -3%) did not allow the conclusion of HFNC noninferiority (p = 0.707). Superiority analysis suggested a relative risk of success 1.63 (95% CI 1.02-2.63) higher with nCPAP. The success rate with the alternative respiratory support, intubation rate, durations of noninvasive and invasive ventilation, skin lesions, and length of PICU stay were comparable between groups. No patient had air leak syndrome or died.Conclusion: In young infants with moderate to severe AVB, initial management with HFNC did not have a failure rate similar to that of nCPAP. This clinical trial was recorded in the National Library of Medicine registry (NCT 02457013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Is treatment with a high flow nasal cannula effective in acute viral bronchiolitis? A physiologic study" that was published in the previous issue is presented.