Journal of pediatric hematology/oncology
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J. Pediatr. Hematol. Oncol. · Jul 2008
Comparative StudyNoninvasive ventilation in immunocompromised pediatric patients: eight years of experience in a pediatric oncology intensive care unit.
The experience of noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) in the pediatric setting is limited. The aim of the present study is to retrospectively evaluate the effectiveness of NPPV in pediatric immunocompromised patient admitted in our PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for acute respiratory failure. ⋯ Our results encourage the use of NPPV as a first-line treatment in children with malignancies who develops acute respiratory failure, except in those with severe hemodynamic status.
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J. Pediatr. Hematol. Oncol. · Jul 2008
Risk factors for death in children and adolescents with cancer and sepsis/septic shock.
To assess risk factors for mortality in children and adolescents with cancer and sepsis/septic shock, admitted to intensive care unit. ⋯ Our data suggest that mortality in Oncological Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is high and the main factors involved in prognosis are number of dysfunctional organs, respiratory infections, and duration of granulocytopenia; the mortality rises 7.4 times for each dysfunctional organ. We believe that prospective and multicenter studies are necessary to better characterize risk factors that are specific for cancer patients to produce a particular score to predict severity of complications and mortality of children with cancer.
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J. Pediatr. Hematol. Oncol. · Jul 2008
Case ReportsSevere neurotoxicities in a case of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2 caused by vincristine for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
We report a 13-year-old male patient with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) type 2 who developed severe neuropathy because of vincristine (VCR) for his acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A clumsy gait, muscle weakness in his fingers, and inverted champagne bottlelike muscle in the lower limbs were noticed after remission induction treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which included VCR at a total dose of 8 mg/m. ⋯ His symptoms gradually worsened, and even after VCR was discontinued, he could not walk alone for 7 months. VCR has previously been considered to be relatively safe in CMT type 2, however, some patients with CMT type 2 might show severe neurologic toxicities, as seen in patients with CMT type 1.