• Ulrich Terheggen, Christian Heiring, Mattias Kjellberg, Fredrik Hegardt, Martin Kneyber, Maurizio Gente, Charles C Roehr, Gilles Jourdain, Pierre Tissieres, Padmanabhan Ramnarayan, Morten Breindahl, and Johannes van den Berg.
• Department of Critical Care, Paediatric and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Al Jalila Children's Hospital, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. terheggen@gmx.org.
• Pediatr. Res. 2020 Jul 7.

BackgroundThe 2020 novel coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) pandemic necessitates tailored recommendations addressing specific procedures for neonatal and paediatric transport of suspected or positive COVID-19 patients. The aim of this consensus statement is to define guidelines for safe clinical care for children needing inter-facility transport while making sure that the clinical teams involved are sufficiently protected from SARS-CoV-2.MethodsA taskforce, composed of members of the European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC) Transport section and the European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR), reviewed the published literature and used a rapid, two-step modified Delphi process to formulate recommendations regarding safety and clinical management during transport of COVID-19 patients.ResultsThe joint taskforce consisted of a panel of 12 experts who reached an agreement on a set of 17 recommendations specifying pertinent aspects on neonatal and paediatric COVID-19 patient transport. These included: case definition, personal protective equipment, airway management, equipment and strategies for invasive and non-invasive ventilation, special considerations for incubator and open stretcher transports, parents on transport and decontamination of transport vehicles.ConclusionsOur consensus recommendations aim to define current best-practice and should help guide transport teams dealing with infants and children with COVID-19 to work safely and effectively.ImpactWe present European consensus recommendations on pertinent measures for transporting infants and children in times of the coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2 /COVID-19) pandemic.A panel of experts reviewed the evidence around transporting infants and children with proven or suspected COVID-19. Specific guidance on aspects of personal protective equipment, airway management and considerations for incubator and open stretcher transports is presented.Based on scant evidence, best-practice recommendations for neonatal and paediatric transport teams are presented, aiming for the protection of teams and patients. We highlight gaps in knowledge and areas of future research.

18 keywords...

hide…