Learning Objectives: Care at end of life in adults is known to account for a large proportion of health care resources. Current national estimates of outcomes in hospitalized children with end of life care are unknown. Using a large nationwide…
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the opinions of intensive care unit staff and family members about family participation in decisions about patients in intensive care units in France, a country where the approach of physicians to patients and families has been…
OBJECTIVES:
Surrogate decision makers involved in decisions to limit life support for an incapacitated patient in the ICU have high rates of adverse emotional health outcomes distinct from normal processes of grief and bereavement. Narrative…
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether children who experience longer intensive care unit (ICU) stays after open heart surgery may be identified at admission by clinical criteria. To identify factors associated with longer ICU stays that are potential…
OBJECTIVE: To determine the attitudes and practices of pediatric critical care attending physicians and pediatric critical care nurses on end-of-life care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: A random sample of clinicians at 31 pediatric…
OBJECTIVE: To describe the attitudes and practice of clinicians in providing sedation and analgesia to dying patients as life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective case series of 53 consecutive patients who died after the…
OBJECTIVE: To determine the epidemiology of death in PICUs at 5 geographically diverse teaching hospitals across the United States. DESIGN: Prospective case series. SETTING: Five U.S. teaching hospitals. SUBJECTS: We concurrently identified 192…
Pandemic H1N1 influenza is projected to be unprecedented in its scope, causing acute critical illness among thousands of young otherwise healthy adults, who will need advanced life support. Rigorous, relevant, timely, and ethical clinical and health…
OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence, survival, and neurologic outcome of in-intensive-care-unit (ICU) cardiac arrest and to identify factors predictive of survival to hospital discharge. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study. Eligible…
Objectives: For children, adolescents, and young adults with complex chronic conditions advance care planning may be a vital component of optimal care. Advance care planning outcomes research has previously focused on seriously ill adults and…
Learning Objectives: For many children with medical complexity (CMC), early death is an inevitable outcome of their illness, making advance care planning (ACP) a vital component in the optimal care of this population. Studies evaluating the…
OBJECTIVES: The decision to forgo life support is frequently made in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). A group of experts is currently preparing recommendations for guidelines concerning this decision-making process in France. We have performed…
OBJECTIVES: Children with severe chronic illness are a prevalent, impactful, vulnerable group in PICUs, whose needs are insufficiently met by transitory care models and a narrow focus on acute care needs. Thus, we sought to provide a concise…
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to establish relationships between illness severity, length of stay, and functional outcomes in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) by using multi-institutional data. We hypothesized that a positive…
OBJECTIVES: To record the number of children with withdrawal symptoms after the administration of sedatives for mechanical ventilation, and to discuss the possible connection with the administration of midazolam. DESIGN: Retrospective data collection…
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
To develop and validate an algorithm to guide selection of patients for pediatric critical care admission during a severe pandemic when Crisis Standards of Care are implemented.
DESIGN:
Retrospective observational study using…
OBJECTIVE: To establish a database that permits description and analysis of the evolving role, patterns of use, and costs of critical care medicine (CCM) in the United States from 1985 to 2000. DESIGN: Retrospective study combining data from federal…
OBJECTIVE: The role of family interests in medical decision making is controversial. Physicians who routinely treat incompetent patients may have preferred strategies for addressing family interests as they are encountered in surrogate medical…
Learning Objectives: Pediatric intensivists are often required to practice what has been described as "primary palliative care". This includes providing optimal symptom management, communication and family support for critically ill children with…
OBJECTIVE: To determine the pharmacokinetics of fentanyl when used as a long-term continuous infusion for sedation/analgesia in mechanically ventilated critically ill infants and children. DESIGN: Prospective, case series. SETTING: A university…
OBJECTIVE: To prospectively determine opinions of members of a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) team regarding the appropriateness of aggressive care. The types of support that caregivers sought to limit and their reasons for wanting these limits…
OBJECTIVE: To measure the association between intensive care unit (ICU) admission and both hospital and long-term mortality, separate from the effect of hospital admission alone. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: All hospitals in British…
OBJECTIVES: The high cost of critical care has engendered research into identifying influential factors. However, existing studies have not considered patient vital status at ICU discharge. This study sought to determine the effect of mortality upon…
Learning Objectives: Social workers (SWs) and chaplains (Cs) support families of PICU cancer patients. Few data describe the activities and impact of SWs and Cs (SWs/Cs) in the PICU. This study examined the activities of SWs/Cs caring for PICU cancer…
OBJECTIVE: To describe the reasons for eventual dissatisfaction among the families of patients who died in the intensive care unit (ICU), regarding both the assistance offered during the patient's stay in the hospital and the information received…
OBJECTIVE: Length of stay in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is a reflection of patient severity of illness and health status, as well as PICU quality and performance. We determined the clinical profiles and relative resource use of…
OBJECTIVE: Family members of critically ill patients report dissatisfaction with family-clinician communication about withdrawing life support, yet limited data exist to guide clinicians in this communication. The hypothesis of this analysis was that…
OBJECTIVE:: To evaluate the feasibility and perceived benefits of conducting physician-parent follow-up meetings after a child's death in the PICU according to a framework developed by the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network.…
OBJECTIVE: To identify priorities for quality end-of-life care from the parents' perspective. DESIGN: Anonymous, self-administered questionnaire. SETTING: Three pediatric intensive care units in Boston. PARTICIPANTS: Parents of children who had died…
Learning Objectives: Integration of pediatric palliative care (PPC) into the management of children with serious illness and their families is widely endorsed by international organizations and experts in the field as standard of care. However,…
OBJECTIVE: Mechanical ventilation is a common therapy used in caring for critically ill patients, but its epidemiology is poorly understood. We describe population-based, temporal trends in the incidence, survival, and hospital bed utilization of…
OBJECTIVE: To describe models used in successful clinical initiatives to improve the quality of palliative care in critical care settings. DATA SOURCES: We searched the MEDLINE database from inception to April 2010 for all English language articles…
Learning Objectives: Palliative Care (PC) is a scarce resource. Little is known about its allocation among critically ill children. Previously proposed criteria may help identify children who may benefit from PC. Method(s): This is a retrospective…
OBJECTIVE: Anxiety and depression may have a major impact on a person's ability to make decisions. Characterization of symptoms that reflect anxiety and depression in family members visiting intensive care patients should be of major relevance to the…
The Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score was developed from the Physiologic Stability Index (PSI) to reduce the number of physiologic variables required for pediatric ICU (PICU) mortality risk assessment and to obtain an objective weighting of…
