Pediatric blood & cancer
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Pediatric blood & cancer · Mar 2009
Clinical practice guideline improves the treatment of sickle cell disease vasoocclusive pain.
Pain is the most common complication of sickle cell disease requiring emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalization. A Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) to manage acute sickle cell pain offers clinicians a standardized approach for the provision of evidence-based, cost-effective care. After CPG implementation, monitoring of pre-established indicators is a strategy to evaluate progress toward meeting the goal of providing rapid, effective pain relief for patients with acute sickle cell pain. ⋯ Implementation of a CPG to manage acute sickle cell pain in the ED improves the ability to deliver timely, effective analgesia to this patient population. Establishing and monitoring internal benchmarks provides a means for ongoing evaluation of the pre-established goals for patient care.
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Cisplatin is an effective agent against osteosarcoma. Ototoxicity from osteosarcoma treatment protocols has not been well defined. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and risk factors for hearing loss in children treated for osteosarcoma. ⋯ Cisplatin administered as 60 mg/m(2)/day for 2 days resulted in a low incidence of significant hearing loss. These results suggest that cisplatin as 120 mg/m(2)/day be avoided due to an unacceptable incidence of hearing loss.