Pediatr Crit Care Me
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Pediatr Crit Care Me · Mar 2010
Comparative StudyImpact of hypothermia in the rural, pediatric trauma patient.
Hypothermia is an independent predictor of mortality in adult trauma studies. However, the impact of hypothermia on the pediatric trauma population has not been described. The purpose of this study is to evaluate hypothermia as a cofactor to mortality, complications, and among survivors, hospital length of stay parameters in the pediatric trauma population. ⋯ Hypothermia is a common problem at admission among pediatric trauma patients. Hypothermia is associated with an increase in the odds of death and the development of a bleeding diathesis, while having decreased odds for developing pneumonia. While the length of stay indicators were longer in the hypothermic cohort among survivors, no significant association was noted with hypothermia for hospital, ICU, or ventilator days after controlling for confounders.
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Pediatr Crit Care Me · Mar 2010
Impact of syringe size on the performance of infusion pumps at low flow rates.
To evaluate the impact of syringe size on start-up delay and the time to reach 50% and 90% of target flow rates, using two commercially available syringe infusion pumps at infusion rates of < or =1 mL/hr. ⋯ Our findings demonstrate a clinically relevant impact of syringe size on syringe infusion pump performance at low flow rates. The time to reach 50% and 90% of target flow are significantly longer, using the 50-mL syringe compared with the 10-mL syringe, and the time to reach 50% of target flow is independent of the longer start-up delay. Based on our findings, we speculate that smaller syringe sizes and higher infusion rates are preferable for continuous drug infusions, particularly when prompt establishment of the drug effect is critical.