Patterns of End-of-Life Care in Children With Advanced Solid Tumor Malignancies Enrolled on a Palliative Care Service.

CONTEXT: Pediatric patients with solid tumors can have a significant symptom burden that impacts quality of life (QoL) and end-of-life care needs. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated outcomes and symptoms in children with solid tumors and compared patterns of end-of-life care after implementation of a dedicated institutional pediatric palliative care (PC) service. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of children with solid tumors treated at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, before and after implementation of the institutional QoL/PC service in January 2007. Patients who died between July 2001 and February 2005 (historical cohort; n = 134) were compared with those who died between January 2007 and January 2012 (QoL/PC cohort; n = 57). RESULTS: Median time to first QoL/PC consultation was 17.2 months (range 9-33). At consultation, 60% of children were not receiving or discontinued cancer-directed therapy. Within the QoL/PC cohort, 54 patients had documented symptoms, 94% required intervention for ≥3 symptoms, and 76% received intervention for ≥5 symptoms. Eighty-three percent achieved their preferred place of death. Compared with the historical cohort, the QoL/PC cohort had more end-of-life discussions per patient (median 12 vs. 3; P < 0.001), earlier end-of-life discussions, with longer times before do-not-resuscitate orders (median 195 vs. 2 days; P < 0.001), and greater hospice enrollment (71% vs. 46%, P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Although children with solid tumor malignancies may have significant symptom burden toward the end of life, positive changes were documented in communication and in places of care and death after implementation of a pediatric PC service.

National estimates of emergency department visits for pediatric severe sepsis in the United States.

Objective. We sought to determine the characteristics of children presenting to United States (US) Emergency Departments (ED) with severe sepsis. Study design. Cross-sectional analysis using data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS). Using triage vital signs and ED diagnoses (defined by the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes), we identified children <18 years old presenting with both infection (triage fever or ICD-9 infection) and organ dysfunction (triage hypotension or ICD-9 organ dysfunction). Results. Of 28.2 million pediatric patients presenting to US EDs each year, severe sepsis was present in 95,055 (0.34%; 95% CI: 0.29-0.39%). Fever and respiratory infection were the most common indicators of an infection. Hypotension and respiratory failure were the most common indicators of organ dysfunction. Most severe sepsis occurred in children ages 31 days-1 year old (32.1%). Most visits for pediatric severe sepsis occurred during winter months (37.4%), and only 11.1% of patients arrived at the ED by ambulance. Over half of severe sepsis cases were self-pay or insured by Medicaid. A large portion (44.1%) of pediatric severe sepsis ED visits occurred in the South census region. ED length of stay was over 3 h, and 16.5% were admitted to the hospital. Conclusion. Nearly 100,000 children annually present to US EDs with severe sepsis. The findings of this study highlight the unique characteristics of children treated in the ED for severe sepsis.

Endotracheal intubation skill acquisition by medical students.

BACKGROUND: During the course of their training, medical students may receive introductory experience with advanced resuscitation skills. Endotracheal intubation (ETI--the insertion of a breathing tube into the trachea) is an example of an important advanced resuscitation intervention. Only limited data characterize clinical ETI skill acquisition by medical students. We sought to characterize medical student acquisition of ETI procedural skill. METHODS: The study included third-year medical students participating in a required anesthesiology clerkship. Students performed ETI on operating room patients under the supervision of attending anesthesiologists. Students reported clinical details of each ETI effort, including patient age, sex, Mallampati score, number of direct laryngoscopies and ETI success. Using mixed-effects regression, we characterized the adjusted association between ETI success and cumulative ETI experience. RESULTS: ETI was attempted by 178 students on 1,646 patients (range 1-23 patients per student; median 9 patients per student, IQR 6-12). Overall ETI success was 75.0% (95% CI 72.9-77.1%). Adjusted for patient age, sex, Mallampati score and number of laryngoscopies, the odds of ETI success improved with cumulative ETI encounters (odds ratio 1.09 per additional ETI encounter; 95% CI 1.04-1.14). Students required at least 17 ETI encounters to achieve 90% predicted ETI success. CONCLUSIONS: In this series medical student ETI proficiency was associated with cumulative clinical procedural experience. Clinical experience may provide a viable strategy for fostering medical student procedural skills.