Pediatr Crit Care Me
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Pediatr Crit Care Me · Oct 2017
Creating a Controlled Arterio-Venous Shunt by Reversing the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Blood Flow: A Strategy for Weaning Patients Off Veno-Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
To assess whether reversing the veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation blood flow (thereby creating a controlled arterio-venous shunt) can be used to wean children off extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The standard practice for weaning patients off VA extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is to gradually reduce the blood flows delivered through the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation pump to a minimum level followed by either insertion of an "arterio-venous bridge" and clamping of the blood flow to the patient or direct decannulation. "Pump controlled retrograde flow trial off" is a technique where the revolutions in the centrifugal pump are reduced to the point where the patient will drive the blood retrograde through the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuit, effectively turning the circuit into a controlled arterio-venous shunt. The revolutions per minute control the amount of shunt flow. This eliminates any cardiorespiratory support the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuit may provide to the patient. ⋯ Pump controlled retrograde flow trial off is an easy to use and easily reversible technique to assess patient readiness for separation from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Given pump controlled retrograde flow trial off can easily be stopped and-in our experience-is not associated with complications, it lowers the threshold to attempt coming off extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and facilitates accurate assessment of whether a patient will need further ongoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support.
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Pediatr Crit Care Me · Oct 2017
Population Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamic Target Attainment of Vancomycin in Neonates on Extracorporeal Life Support.
To evaluate the population pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic target attainment of vancomycin in neonates with a contemporary ¼-inch extracorporeal life support circuit with a Quadrox-iD Pediatric oxygenator (Maquet Cardiovascular, LLC, Wayne, NJ). ⋯ To our knowledge, this is the first pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic study of neonates receiving vancomycin with a contemporary ¼-inch extracorporeal life support circuit including the Quadrox-iD Pediatric oxygenator (Maquet Cardiovascular, LLC). The data suggest differences in vancomycin pharmacokinetics compared with previous extracorporeal life support data, notably a more rapid clearance, which could result in lower vancomycin concentrations. Considering this, a more aggressive initial dosing regimen may need to be employed in infants on extracorporeal life support.
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Pediatr Crit Care Me · Oct 2017
An Interprofessional Quality Improvement Initiative to Standardize Pediatric Extubation Readiness Assessment.
Establishing protocols to wean mechanical ventilation and assess readiness for extubation, with the goal of minimizing morbidity associated with extubation failure and prolonged mechanical ventilation, have become increasingly important in contemporary PICUs. The aim of this quality improvement initiative is to establish a respiratory therapist-led daily spontaneous breathing trial protocol to standardize extubation readiness assessment and documentation in our PICU. ⋯ An interprofessionally developed respiratory therapist-led extubation readiness protocol can be successfully implemented in a busy tertiary care PICU without adverse events.