The Effect of the Vitamin Protocol for Treating Sepsis or Septic Shock in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Background@#Recently, a study comprising adult patients with sepsis admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) was conducted. The patients were treated with high doses of intravenous ascorbic acid, thiamine, and hydrocortisone; the clinical outcomes demonstrated significant therapeutic benefits. The mortality rate in children with sepsis is approximately 25%. However, the effects of additional treatment with ascorbic acid and thiamine (“vitamin protocol”) in children are rarely investigated. @*Methods@#A retrospective analysis was performed using medical records of patients diagnosed with sepsis and admitted to the pediatric ICU (PICU) between September 2016 and June 2019. The control group received treatment only as per sepsis protocol, whereas the treated group received both sepsis protocol and the vitamin protocol. The primary endpoint was change in Vasoactive-Inotropic Score (VIS) for 5 days. The secondary endpoints included the length of stay in the PICU, duration of using mechanical ventilators and vasopressors, and mortality rate. @*Results@#The number of patients in the treated and control groups was 33 and 24, respectively. The treated group showed greater decrease in their VIS for 5 days than the control group (44.4 vs 18.6); however, the difference was not statistically significant. The length of stay in the PICU was significantly longer for the treated group than for the control group [10.0 days (Interquartile range (IQR), 6-18) vs 4.5 days (IQR, 4-10.3); p=0.004]. @*Conclusions@#No significant treatment benefits were observed following vitamin protocol administration to the pediatric patients with sepsis. Further studies are necessary for improving the efficacy and safety of the vitamin protocol.

The Effect of the Vitamin Protocol for Treating Sepsis or Septic Shock in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Background@#Recently, a study comprising adult patients with sepsis admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) was conducted. The patients were treated with high doses of intravenous ascorbic acid, thiamine, and hydrocortisone; the clinical outcomes demonstrated significant therapeutic benefits. The mortality rate in children with sepsis is approximately 25%. However, the effects of additional treatment with ascorbic acid and thiamine (“vitamin protocol”) in children are rarely investigated. @*Methods@#A retrospective analysis was performed using medical records of patients diagnosed with sepsis and admitted to the pediatric ICU (PICU) between September 2016 and June 2019. The control group received treatment only as per sepsis protocol, whereas the treated group received both sepsis protocol and the vitamin protocol. The primary endpoint was change in Vasoactive-Inotropic Score (VIS) for 5 days. The secondary endpoints included the length of stay in the PICU, duration of using mechanical ventilators and vasopressors, and mortality rate. @*Results@#The number of patients in the treated and control groups was 33 and 24, respectively. The treated group showed greater decrease in their VIS for 5 days than the control group (44.4 vs 18.6); however, the difference was not statistically significant. The length of stay in the PICU was significantly longer for the treated group than for the control group [10.0 days (Interquartile range (IQR), 6-18) vs 4.5 days (IQR, 4-10.3); p=0.004]. @*Conclusions@#No significant treatment benefits were observed following vitamin protocol administration to the pediatric patients with sepsis. Further studies are necessary for improving the efficacy and safety of the vitamin protocol.

Analysis of Compliance and Clinical Outcomes by Expanding Physician's Departments in Pediatric Nutrition Support Team

PURPOSE@#Malnutrition in hospitalized children has an impact on growth, morbidity, and mortality. For this reason, the implementation of pediatric nutrition support team (PNST) has been suggested. On April 2017, in Severance Hospital, more PNST physician's departments participated in PNST, and a PNST physician assigning system was changed to be the same departments with the attending physician and PNST physician. This study performed a comparative analysis of the compliance and clinical outcomes after expanding the participation of the PNST physician's department.@*METHODS@#Pediatric patients, who were referred to a PNST consultant, were divided into two groups: an unmatched group (different departments with the attending physician and PNST physician [154 patients, 233 consultations from May 2016 to October 2016]), and a matched group (same departments with the attending physician and PNST physician [169 patients, 302 consultations from May 2017 to October 2017]). The PNST compliance and clinical outcomes, such as the total delivered/required caloric and protein ratio, % ideal body weight (%IBW), serum total protein, and serum albumin, in the two groups were compared.@*RESULTS@#The compliance was significantly higher in the matched group than the unmatched group (63.4% vs. 47.3%, P=0.005). Although there was no significant difference, the total delivered/required caloric and protein ratio, and %IBW in the matched group tended to increase. The serum total protein (0.7±0.7 g/dL vs. −0.4±1.3 g/dL, P=0.004) and serum albumin (0.5±0.5 g/dL vs. −0.1±0.6 g/dL, P=0.003) were significantly higher in the matched group.@*CONCLUSION@#After expanding the physician's departments in PNST, the compliance was significantly higher in the matched group and the clinical outcomes tended to better. The physician assigning system to be matched with the departments between the attending physician and the PNST physician may help increase the compliance of NST consultations, resulting in an improvement of the patient's clinical outcomes.

Effects of Parenteral Nutrition in Pediatric Patients with Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of parenteral nutrition (PN) on the nutritional status, clinical improvement, and PN-related complications in pediatric patients who had undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). METHODS: A retrospective audit of 110 pediatric patients (age≤18), who underwent HSCT from March 2015 to February 2017 was undertaken. The patients were divided into 3 groups based on the ratio of daily calorie supplementation to the daily calorie requirement (ROCS). The clinical factors related to the nutritional status, such as difference in body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI), percent ideal body weight (PIBW), total protein (T.protein), and albumin; the early clinical outcome, such as PN-duration, length of hospitaliaztion (LOH), engraftment day (ED), graft-versus-host disease, sepsis, pneumonia and mucositis; and PN-related complications, including elevation of total bilirubin (T.bil), direct bilirubin (D.bil), aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, glucose and cholesterol levels, and hepatic veno-occlusive disease were analyzed using the electronic medical records. Additional analysis subject to auto-HSCT and allo-HSCT patients was also performed. RESULTS: The very-low-ROCS, low-ROCS, and satisfied-ROCS group were 30 (27.3%), 47 (42.7%), and 33 (30.0%) patients, respectively. The PN-duration (P=0.005, z=−2.271), LOH (P=0.023, z=−2.840), ED (P < 0.001, z=−3.695), T.bil elevation (P < 0.001, z=−3.660), and D.bil elevation (P=0.002, z=−3.064) tended to decrease with increasing ROCS. The difference in the PN-duration (P=0.017), ED (P=0.001), T.bil elevation (P=0.001), and D.bil elevation (P=0.011) in the 3 groups was statistically significant. In the auto-HSCT patients, the change in BW (P=0.031, z=+2.154), PIBW (P=0.029, z=+2.187), and BMI (P=0.021, z=+2.306) tended to increase. In the allo-HSCT patients, the change in T.protein (P=0.022, z=+2.286) increased but the ED (P=0.021, z=−2.304) decreased. CONCLUSION: Aggressive PN supplementation has an effect on maintaining the nutritional status and achieving better early outcomes in pediatric HSCT patients, whereas it has no effect on increasing the PN-related complications.

Surgical treatment of mucin-producing cholangiocarcinoma arising from intraductal papillary neoplasm of the intrahepatic bile duct: a report of 2 cases

Intraductal papillary neoplasms of the bile duct (IPNB) leads to malignant transformation and mucin production. Herein, we presented two cases of mucin-producing IPNB with obstructive jaundice who underwent resection of the intrahepatic lesions and bypass hepaticojejunostomy. The first case was a 69 year-old male patient with 5-year follow up for gallstone disease. Imaging studies showed mucin-secreting IPNB mainly in the hepatic segment III bile duct (B3) and multiple intrahepatic duct stones for which, segment III resection, intrahepatic stone removal, end-to-side choledochojejunostomy and B3 hepaticojejunostomy were conducted. The second case was a 74 year-old female patient with 11-year follow up for gallstone disease. Imaging studies showed mucin-producing IPNB with dilatation of the segment IV duct (B4) and mural nodules for which, segment IV resection, partial resection of the diaphragm and central hepaticojejunostomy were conducted. Both patients recovered uneventfully from surgery. These cases highlight that in patients with IPNB, abundant production of highly viscous mucin inducing obstructive jaundice may be associated with malignant transformation.

Discrimination between Benign and Malignant Pelvic Masses Using the Risk of Malignancy Index 1 / 대한폐경학회지

OBJECTIVES: To assess the ability of risk of malignancy index (RMI) 1 to discriminate between benign and malignant pelvic masses. METHODS: Between January 2007 and December 2010, 547 women with pelvic masses were evaluated. Their medical records are reviewed here retrospectively. The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of the cancer antigen (CA) 125 level, ultrasound findings and menopausal status in the prediction of malignant pelvic masses were calculated and compared individually or combined using the RMI 1. RESULTS: The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of CA 125, the ultrasound score and the RMI 1 were all found to be relevant predictors of malignancy. ROC analysis of the RMI 1, CA 125 serum levels, ultrasound score and menopausal status showed areas under the curves of 0.795, 0.782, 0.784 and 0.594, respectively. The RMI 1 was found to be statistically significantly correlated with menopausal status (P = 0.001), while not statistically significantly correlated with CA 125 (P = 0.628) or the ultrasound score (P = 0.541). The RMI 1 at a cut-off of 150 - with a sensitivity of 77.9%, specificity of 81.1%, positive predictive value of 51.7% and negative predictive value of 93.4% - showed the highest performance in determining the malignant tendency of pelvic masses. CONCLUSION: Accepting a RMI 1 cut-off value of 150 results in statistically more significant diagnostic criteria than menopausal status for the discrimination of benign and malignant pelvic masses.