Can early bacterial complications of aspiration with respiratory failure be predicted?

We studied the early infectious complications of all children admitted for intensive care over a six-year period who were at high risk of having severe aspiration of gastric or pharyngeal secretions. Patients were only analyzed if they required mechanical ventilation for acute respiratory failure, had a blood culture obtained in the first 48 hours, and survived at least 24 hours. Infections were identified by positive blood cultures. Possible infections were defined as fever (over 38.5 degrees C), abnormal leukocyte count (greater than 10,000 or less than 5000), and a potential pathogen in tracheal secretions. Patients' diagnoses included near-drowning (13), aspirated foreign body (5), observed aspiration of gastric contents in a hospitalized patient (2), and hydrocarbon aspiration (1). Of 21 high-risk patients, five (23.8%) had infections and two (9.5%) had possible infections in the first 48 hours. In contrast, no late infections were seen. Infected patients tended to be older (P less than 0.05). No diagnostic features in the first two days of hospitalization reliably identified those who would develop early infections (P greater than 0.05). Since early life-threatening infection is common and cannot be reliably predicted by clinical signs, we recommend aggressive bacteriologic surveillance and the administration of IV antibiotics on admission to all patients in respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation after presumed aspiration of gastric or pharyngeal secretions.

Evaluation of resuscitation proficiency in simulations: the impact of a simultaneous cognitive task.

In order to evaluate the impact of simulation complexity on resuscitation skill performance, 15 pediatric residents were observed in bag-valve-mask ventilation on an infant manikin. Performance was evaluated in a simple exercise in which ventilation was performed as a single isolated task. For each subject, this was compared to performance when a cognitive task involving clinical problem solving was simultaneously presented. Performance was expressed as frequency, tidal volume, and estimated hypothetical alveolar Pco2 in each resuscitation. A correlation was observed (P less than 0.05) between simple and complex resuscitation simulations for each measure of performance. The only subject with inadequate performance in the complex exercise was also identified as deficient in the simple exercise. These observations suggest that an adequate evaluation of performance of some resuscitation skills may be obtained in simple, efficient simulation exercises.

Intrahospital transport of seriously ill or injured children.

Critically ill children are frequently subject to transfer between hospitals or even between units in hospitals. Safety is an important concern for the ensuing transport in order to minimize risk and maximize efficiency. Nurses should give careful consideration to many aspects of the intrahospital transport when planning the move. Principles outlined in this article can be included in critical care educational programs.

Adverse events during interhospital transport: physiologic deterioration associated with pretransport severity of illness.

The relationship between severity of illness or injury before interhospital transport and the incidence of physiologic deterioration during transport was studied in 117 pediatric patients. Transports were done by referring hospital personnel. Pretransport severity was expressed as the Pediatric Risk of Mortality score for all patients and as the Modified Injury Severity Score for trauma patients. For 71 patients with Pediatric Risk of Mortality scores less than 10, deterioration during transport occurred in 3 (4%) and hospital mortality occurred in 2 (3%). For 10 victims of trauma with Modified Injury Severity Scores less than 10, none had deterioration during transport or hospital mortality. The rare occurrence of serious problems related to transport in low-risk patients indicates that referring hospital personnel are capable of safely transporting such patients. The incidence of physiologic deterioration during transport was significantly greater (P less than .01) with greater pretransport severity of illness or injury. Failure to intubate the trachea was not a major preventable cause of deterioration. The most common preventable problem occurred for 6 of 79 patients with endotracheal tubes that became occluded with secretions, leading to cyanosis in 2 patients. Our data concerning high-risk patients with specified pretransport severity provide a basis for comparison for further evaluation of the benefit of specialized pediatric transport services.

Anatomy of femoral vessels in infants and guidelines for venous catheterization.

This study was performed to formulate femoral venous catheterization guidelines for infants from ultrasound observations. Femoral vessels were evaluated on both sides in 75 infants, 2 weeks to 24 months of age. The site of the greatest probability of successful venipuncture 1 cm below the skin crease at the groin is located 4 to 5 mm medial to the femoral artery pulse. If it is assumed that entry into the central half of the vein will result in successful catheterization, successive attempts 5 mm and 6 mm medial to the pulse would result in cumulative successful insertion in 53% and 61%, respectively, with no arterial punctures. A third attempt 4 mm medial to the pulse further increases cumulative success to 78%, but 3% arterial punctures would occur. These guidelines are intended to facilitate achievement of femoral venous catheterization, minimizing arterial punctures and number of needle passes required.