Federal and state government policymakers in Australia are promoting shared decision making in acute care hospitals as a means to improve the quality of end-of-life care. If policy is to be effective, health care professionals who provide hospital…
Improvements in protocol-driven clinical trials and supportive care for children and adolescents with cancer have reduced mortality rates by more than 50% over the past three decades. Overall, the 5-year survival rate for patients with pediatric…
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a palliative medicine consultation on medical intensive care unit (MICU) and hospital length of stay, Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) designation, and location of death for MICU patients who…
BACKGROUND: Discussions about DNR (do not resuscitate) orders or code status are common but can be difficult and may not lead to accurate understanding between clinicians and patients. These discussion are often isolated from the larger context of a…
BACKGROUND: Although the extent of hospital and intensive-care use at the end of life is well known, patterns of surgical care during this period are poorly understood. We examined national patterns of surgical care in the USA among elderly…
Pediatric surgeons can play an important role in offering procedures that may improve the quality of life for terminally ill children. As with all palliative interventions, surgical therapies should be evaluated in the context of explicitly defined…
Pain coping is thought to be the most significant behavioural contribution to the adjustment to pain. Little is known about how those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) cope with pain. We describe parental reported coping styles…
It has been two decades since advance directives have become an integral part of health care. Impediments to their optimal usage are common and multifactorial. Decisions commonly have to be made when patients are unable to do so or choose not to…
Neonatal nosocomial infection (NNI) is a major complication of neonatal care, increasing mortality, morbidity and the costs of healthcare. Management of NNI involves attention to many details of care, creating a culture of change within a neonatal…
OBJECTIVES: The burden of suffering among patients with end-stage chronic diseases may be greater than those of cancer patients, as a result of longer duration of illness trajectory and high prevalence of symptoms, yet they may be less likely to…
AIM: To identify the nature of services for children and young people with progressive neuromuscular disorders (NMD) provided by Children's Hospices in the UK. METHODS: A questionnaire requesting aggregate data on the number of patients with a…
BACKGROUND: The use of CAM by the relapsed pediatric oncology population has largely gone unstudied. The main objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of and change in CAM use in oncology patients for whom frontline therapy had failed.…
INTRODUCTION: Palliative care services that address physical pain and emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual needs may benefit individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). METHODS: The objective of this study was to describe the palliative…
Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with advanced or terminal cancer have distinctive medical and psychosocial needs that may not have been adequately provided by either pediatric or adult palliative care services. A discussion group, as part of a…
To identify causes of death (COD) in propositi with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) at various ages, and to develop guidelines to improve management and avoid morbidity and mortality, we retrospectively reviewed a total of 426 propositi with…
CONTEXT: The rate of prescription opioid-related overdose death increased substantially in the United States over the past decade. Patterns of opioid prescribing may be related to risk of overdose mortality. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of…
This paper describes Mexican American family members' descriptions of perceived discrimination by pediatric health care providers (HCPs) and the families' reactions to the HCPs' discriminatory conduct. A retrospective, grounded theory design guided…
PURPOSE: We report aspects of sleep-disordered breathing in a cohort of achondroplastic children who attended our hospital. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted for a 15-year period to further evaluate the diagnosis and treatment of…
OBJECT: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established technique for the treatment of several movement disorders in adults. However, the technical approach, complications, and results of DBS in children have not been well documented. METHODS: A…
Aim of the study: To assess the efficacy and safety of endoscopic balloon dilatation of esophageal strictures in children. Material and methods: Design: retrospective case series; population: 49 patients under 18 years of age referred to our center…
Lesch-Nyhan disease (LND) is characterized by dystonia, cognitive abnormalities, and self-injurious behavior. No effective therapies are available. LND is associated with a presynaptic dopaminergic deficit, but the reported effects of dopamine…
In the current study, the authors examined whether the fatigue level of children diagnosed with cri du chat syndrome was associated with the expression of autistic symptoms. Sixty-nine children with cri du chat syndrome were compared with 47 children…
Previous studies demonstrated the efficacy and safety of prolonged-release melatonin in children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders. The long-term effectiveness and safety of prolonged-release melatonin treatment were…
Loss of hand function is a core feature of Rett syndrome. This article describes longitudinal hand function at 3 time points for 72 subjects participating in the Australian Rett Syndrome Database. Approximately 40% of subjects with some grasping…
Rett Syndrome (RS) is a neuro-developmental disorder, predominantly affecting females, resulting in severe mental retardation and neuro-behavioral disability. Some RS theoreticians hypothesize that behaviors that are neurologically driven are not…
Rett syndrome is a rare but severe neurological disorder typically associated with a mutation in the MECP2 gene. We describe change in gross motor function over 3 to 4 years for 70 subjects participating in the Australian Rett Syndrome Database.…
Purpose: Preliminary validation of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Infant Test of Neuromuscular Disorders (CHOP INTEND) for motor skill assessment in spinal muscular atrophy type I. Methods: A total of 27 subjects 3 to 260 months old (mean =…
Mucopolysaccharidosis type VI (MPS VI) is a lysosomal storage disease that affects an enzyme responsible for the degradation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Partially degraded GAGs accumulate in several tissues, such as the upper airways (UA), which…
OBJECTIVE: To use the Unified Batten Disease Rating Scale (UBDRS) to measure the rate of decline in physical and functional capability domains in patients with juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL) or Batten disease, a neurodegenerative…
We examined the psychometric properties of one part of the Sleep Questionnaire developed by Simonds and Parraga (SQ-SP; 1982), a questionnaire that is frequently used to explore sleep problems and behaviors related to sleep in individuals with…
