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Objectives: To identify the causes, modes, and timing of death in a tertiary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Methods: This is a retrospective data analysis of patients older than 48 hours and younger than 15 years who died in the PICU over a 5-year period from January 2012 until December 2016 at a tertiary hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results: There were 101 deaths out of 2295 admissions, representing average crude mortality rate of 4.4%. Sepsis was the most common cause of death in 31 patients (30.7%), followed by lower respiratory tract infections in 19 (18.8%), and cardiac diseases in 12 (11.9%). Failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation was the most common mode of death in 51 patients (50.5%), followed by withholding life-sustaining treatment in 43 (42.6%), and brain death in 7 (6.9%). Although more deaths occurred during after hours (n=70; 69.3%), there was no significant correlation between mode of death and working hours vs. after hours (p>0.05). Among the cohort, 63 patients (62.4%) had an infection-attributed mortality, of which 43 (68.3%) were bacterial, 14 (22.2%) were viral, and 10 (15.9%) were fungal. Conclusion: Infections remain a significant cause of death in the PICU. Further improvement of prevention programs and early therapy of severe infections could lower pediatric mortality. This report highlights the need for enhancing palliative care programs. The low rate of brain death diagnoses warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several factors influence patients' length of stay (LOS) in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). This study explored the factors and cost associated with long LOS among pediatric patient population across various PICUs and pediatric surgical cardiac intensive care units (SCICUs). Methods: This is a multi-center concurrent mixed-methods study that was conducted in different PICUs and SCICUs in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The units' leaders were qualitatively interviewed to explore the potential factors contributing to long LOSs in PICUs and SCICUs, and deductive content analysis was used. Microcosting was utilized to estimate the inpatient costs for a sample of long-stay patients (LSPs) and the potential cost savings if those patients were transferred to step-down care units (SDUs) for those who stayed ≥ 60 days. Results: Ten (90%) leaders of PICUs and SCICUs who were invited had participated. Changing the admission criteria, patient transfer to SDUs, family engagement in the decision-making process, and adopting a national do-not-resuscitate (DNR) policy were factors contributing to short LOSs. On the other hand, administrative constraints, staff avoidance of code status decisions, lack of palliative care resources, and complex patient characteristics were factors associated with long LOSs. The mean inpatient cost per patient was SAR 3.63 million (USD 0.97 million), and the total cost for the 48 patients was SAR 172.95 million (USD 46.12 million). Conclusion: If the recommendation to transfer LSPs after a 60-day PICU stay to SDUs is taken, the estimated cost savings among this sample of patients alone can be as high as SAR 109.47 million (USD 29.19 million). Therefore, future studies should examine the factors contributing to long LOSs in PICUs and SCICUs as well as the effectiveness of different policies aimed at improving the resource allocation and management using more robust study designs and diverse patient population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

abstraction. Main Results: All 37 PICU physicians who participated in the handover completed the survey. The participants comprised six attendings, nine specialists, and 22 residents. While 20 (54.1%) physicians reported attending 1– 5 Zoom handovers by the time of the study, some (n. 6, 16.2%) had more than ten virtual handovers. They had variable previous teleconferencing experiences. Most physicians (78.4%) were comfortable conducting a remote handover. Most found that Situation–Background–Assessment–Recommendation handover elements were properly achieved through this remote handover process. The perceived advantages of online handover included fewer interruptions, time efficiency, and facilitation of social distancing. The perceived disadvantages were the paucity of nonverbal communication and teaching during virtual meetings. Conclusion: Video-conferencing applications for online handovers could supplement traditional face-to-face intensive care unit patient handover during outbreaks of infectious diseases. The use of video streaming and more emphasis on teaching should be encouraged to optimize the users' experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deficiency of ubiquitin-specific peptidase 18 (USP18) is a severe type I interferonopathy. USP18 down-regulates type I interferon signaling by blocking the access of Janus-associated kinase 1 (JAK1) to the type I interferon receptor. The absence of USP18 results in unmitigated interferon-mediated inflammation and is lethal during the perinatal period. We describe a neonate who presented with hydrocephalus, necrotizing cellulitis, systemic inflammation, and respiratory failure. Exome sequencing identified a homozygous mutation at an essential splice site on USP18. The encoded protein was expressed but devoid of negative regulatory ability. Treatment with ruxolitinib was followed by a prompt and sustained recovery. (Funded by King Saud University and others.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel approach to enhance expert panel discussions in a medical conference through the use of ChatGPT-4 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer version 4), a recently launched powerful artificial intelligence (AI) language model. We report on ChatGPT-4's ability to optimize and summarize the medical conference panel recommendations of the first Pan-Arab Pediatric Palliative Critical Care Hybrid Conference, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. ChatGPT-4 was incorporated into the discussions in two sequential phases: first, scenarios were optimized by the AI model to stimulate in-depth conversations; second, the model identified, summarized, and contrasted key themes from the panel and audience discussions. The results suggest that ChatGPT-4 effectively facilitated complex do-not-resuscitate (DNR) conflict resolution by summarizing key themes such as effective communication, collaboration, patient and family-centered care, trust, and ethical considerations. The inclusion of ChatGPT-4 in pediatric palliative care panel discussions demonstrated potential benefits for enhancing critical thinking among medical professionals. Further research is warranted to validate and broaden these insights across various settings and cultures., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Almazyad et al.)

Objectives: With the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and the emphasis on social distancing to decrease the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among healthcare workers (HCWs), our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) piloted the integration of Zoom meetings into clinical rounds. We aimed to explore the feasibility of these hybrid virtual and physical clinical rounds for PICU patients. Design: Mixed quantitative and qualitative deductive thematic content analysis of narrative responses. Setting: PICU, single tertiary-care academic center. Participants: Multidisciplinary PICU HCWs. Interventions: Integration of Zoom meeting into clinical daily PICU rounds. Measurements: For the quantitative part, we gathered the details of daily PICU hybrid rounds in terms of times, number of HCWs, and type of files shared through Zoom. For the qualitative part, open-ended questions were used. Main Results: The physical round took statistically significantly less time (34.68 ± 14.842 min) as compared with the Zoom round (72.45 ± 22.59 min), p < 0.001. The most shared component in the virtual round was chest X-rays (93.5%). Thirty-one HCWs participated in focus group discussions and were included in the analysis. Some of the HCWs' perceived advantages of the hybrid rounds were enabling multidisciplinary discussions, fewer round interruptions, and practicality of virtual discussions. The perceived challenges were the difficulty of the bedside nurse attending the virtual round, decreased teaching opportunities for the trainees, and decreased interactions among the team members, especially if video streaming was not utilized. Conclusions: Multidisciplinary hybrid virtual and physical clinical rounds in the PICU were perceived as feasible by HCWs. The virtual rounds decreased the physical contact between the HCWs, which could decrease the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 spread among the treating team. Still, several components of the hybrid round should be optimized to facilitate the virtual team-members' interactions and enhance the teaching experience., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Temsah, Alhboob, Abouammoh, Al-Eyadhy, Aljamaan, Alsohime, Alabdulhafid, Ashry, Bukhari, ElTahir, Jamal, Halwani, Alhasan, Alherbish, Temsah, Al-Tawfiq and Barry.)

Understanding the factors affecting survival and modifying the preventable factors may improve patient outcomes following cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and outcomes of cardiac arrest and CPR events in a tertiary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Outcomes of interest were the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) lasting more than 20 minutes, survival for 24 hours post-CPR, and survival to hospital discharge. We analyzed data from the PICU CPR registry from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2018. All patients who underwent at least 2 minutes of CPR in the PICU were included. CPR was administered in 65 PICU instances, with a prevalence of 1.85%. The mean patient age was 32.7 months. ROSC occurred in 38 (58.5%) patients, 30 (46.2%) achieved 24-hour survival, and 21 (32.3%) survived to hospital discharge. Younger age ( p  < 0.018), respiratory cause ( p  < 0.001), bradycardia ( p  < 0.018), and short duration of CPR ( p  < 0.001) were associated with better outcomes, while sodium bicarbonate, norepinephrine, and vasopressin were associated with worse outcome ( p  < 0.009). The off-hour CPR had no impact on the outcome. The patients' cumulative predicted survival declined by an average of 8.7% for an additional 1 minute duration of CPR ( p  = 0.001). The study concludes that the duration of CPR, therefore, remains one of the crucial factors determining CPR outcomes and needs to be considered in parallel with the guideline emphasis on CPR quality. The lower survival rate post-ROSC needs careful consideration during parental counseling. Better anticipation and prevention of CPR remain ongoing challenges., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest None declared., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).)