Search

BACKGROUND The diagnosis of pneumonia in children is challenging, given the wide overlap of many of the symptoms and physical examination findings with other common respiratory illnesses. We sought to derive and validate the novel Pneumonia Risk Score (PRS), a clinical tool utilizing signs and symptoms available to clinicians to determine a child's risk of radiographic pneumonia. METHODS We prospectively enrolled children 3 months to 18 years in whom a chest radiograph (CXR) was obtained in the emergency department to evaluate for pneumonia. Before CXR, we collected information regarding symptoms, physical examination findings, and the physician-estimated probability of radiographic pneumonia. Logistic regression was used to predict the presence of radiographic pneumonia, and the PRS was validated in a distinct cohort of children with suspected pneumonia. RESULTS Among 1181 children included in the study, 206 (17%) had radiographic pneumonia. The PRS included age in years, triage oxygen saturation, presence of fever, presence of rales, and presence of wheeze. The area under the curve (AUC) of the PRS was 0.71 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68-0.75), while the AUC of clinician judgment was 0.61 (95% CI: 0.56-0.66) (P < 0.001). Among 2132 children included in the validation cohort, the PRS demonstrated an AUC of 0.69 (95% CI: 0.65-0.73). CONCLUSIONS In children with suspected pneumonia, the PRS is superior to clinician judgment in predicting the presence of radiographic pneumonia. Use of the PRS may help efforts to support the judicious use of antibiotics and chest radiography among children with suspected pneumonia.

BACKGROUND Illness complications are condition-specific adverse outcomes. Detecting complications of pediatric illness in administrative data would facilitate widespread quality measurement, however the accuracy of such detection is unclear. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients visiting a large pediatric emergency department. We analyzed those RESULTS We analyzed 1534 encounters. PPVs and NPVs for complications were >80% for 8 of 14 conditions: appendicitis, bacterial meningitis, intussusception, mastoiditis, myocarditis, orbital cellulitis, sepsis, and testicular torsion. Lower PPVs for complications were observed for DKA (57%), empyema (53%), encephalitis (78%), ovarian torsion (21%), and septic arthritis (64%). A lower NPV was observed in stroke (68%). The κ between reviewers was 0.88. CONCLUSIONS An automated method to measure complications by using administrative data can detect complications in appendicitis, bacterial meningitis, intussusception, mastoiditis, myocarditis, orbital cellulitis, sepsis, and testicular torsion. For DKA, empyema, encephalitis, ovarian torsion, septic arthritis, and stroke, the tool may be used to screen for complicated cases that may subsequently undergo manual review.

Background Secondary sonographic findings of appendicitis can aid image analysis and support diagnosis with and without visualization of an appendix. Objective We sought to determine if age affected the test performance of secondary findings for pediatric appendicitis. Materials and methods We performed a medical record review of emergency department patients younger than 19 years of age who had a sonogram for suspected appendicitis. Our primary patient outcome was appendicitis, as determined by pathology or by image-confirmed perforation/abscess. Our primary analysis was test performance of secondary sonographic findings as recorded by sonographers on the final diagnosis of appendicitis stratified by age (

Objective To create definitions for complications for 16 serious pediatric conditions using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification or Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-CM/PCS), and to assess whether complication rates are similar to those measured with ICD-9-CM/PCS. Data sources The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Emergency Department and Inpatient Databases from five states between 2014 and 2017 were used to identify cases and assess complication rates. Incidences were calculated using population counts from the 5-year American Community Survey. Data collection/extraction methods Patients were identified by the presence of a diagnosis code for one of the 16 serious conditions. Only the first encounter for a given condition by a patient was included. Encounters resulting in transfer were excluded as the presence of complications was unknown. Study design We defined complications using data elements routinely available in administrative databases including ICD-10-CM/PCS codes. The definitions were adapted from ICD-9-CM/PCS using general equivalence mappings and refined using consensus opinion. We included 16 serious conditions: appendicitis, bacterial meningitis, compartment syndrome, new-onset diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), ectopic pregnancy, empyema, encephalitis, intussusception, mastoiditis, myocarditis, orbital cellulitis, ovarian torsion, sepsis, septic arthritis, stroke, and testicular torsion. Using data from children under 18 years, we compared incidences and complication rates across the ICD-10-CM/PCS transition for each condition using interrupted time series. Principal findings There were 61 314 ED visits for a serious condition; the most common was appendicitis (n = 37 493). Incidence rates for each condition were not significantly different across the ICD-10-CM/PCS transition for 13/16 conditions. Three differed: empyema (increased 42%), orbital cellulitis (increased 60%), and sepsis (increased 26%). Complication rates were not significantly different for each condition across the ICD-10-CM/PCS transition, except appendicitis (odds ratio 0.62, 95% CI 0.57-0.68), DKA (OR 3.79, 95% CI 1.92-7.50), and orbital cellulitis (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.30-0.95). Conclusions For most conditions, incidences and complication rates were similar before and after the transition to ICD-10-CM/PCS codes, suggesting our system identifies complications of conditions in administrative data similarly using ICD-9-CM/PCS and ICD-10-CM/PCS codes. This system may be applied to screen for cases with complications and in health services research.

Objective We sought to assess interrater reliability (IRR) of lung point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) findings among pediatric patients with suspected pneumonia. Methods A convenience sample of patients between the ages of 6 months and 18 years with a clinical suspicion of pneumonia had a lung ultrasound performed by a POCUS-credentialed emergency medicine physician with subsequent expert review. Each lung zone was assessed as either normal or abnormal, and specific ultrasound findings were recorded. IRR was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and kappa statistics. Results Seventy-one patients, with a total of 852 lung zones imaged, were included. The sonographer assessment of normal versus abnormal, across each of the zones, demonstrated moderate agreement with ICC 0.46 (95% CI: 0.41, 0.52) and kappa 0.56. Right-sided zones demonstrated moderate agreement [0.43 (CI 0.35, 0.51)] while left-sided zones, specifically left-sided anterior zones, showed only fair agreement [0.36 (0.28, 0.44)]. IRR varied between specific findings: ICC for B-lines 0.52 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.57), pleural effusion 0.40 (0.34, 0.45), consolidation 0.39 (0.33, 0.44), subpleural consolidation 0.31 (0.25, 0.37), and pleural line irregularity 0.16 (0.10, 0.23). A composite indicator of typical pneumonia findings (consolidation, B-lines, and pleural effusion) demonstrated moderate [ICC 0.52 (0.46, 0.57)] reliability. Conclusions We found moderate interrater reliability of lung POCUS findings for the assessment of pediatric patients with suspected pneumonia. B-lines had the highest reliability. Further assessment of lung POCUS is necessary to guide proper training and optimal scanning techniques to ensure adequate reliability of ultrasound findings in the assessment of pediatric pneumonia.

Objective Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a common emergency department presentation of both new-onset and established diabetes mellitus (DM). β-Hydroxybutyrate (BOHB) provides a direct measure of the pathophysiologic derangement in DKA as compared with the nonspecific measurements of blood pH and bicarbonate. Our objective was to characterize the relationship between BOHB and DKA. Methods This is a cross-sectional retrospective study of pediatric patients with DM presenting to an urban pediatric emergency department between January 1, 2016, and September 30, 2018. Analyses were performed on each patient's initial, simultaneous BOHB and pH. Diagnostic test characteristics of BOHB were calculated, and logistic regression was performed to investigate the effects of age and other key clinical factors. Results Among 594 patients with DM, with median age of 12.3 years (interquartile range, 8.7-15.9 years), 176 (29.6%) presented with DKA. The inclusion of age, transfer status, and new-onset in the statistical model did not improve the prediction of DKA beyond BOHB alone. β-Hydroxybutyrate demonstrated strong discrimination for DKA, with an area under the curve of 0.95 (95% confidence interval, 0.93-0.97). A BOHB value of 5.3 mmol/L predicted DKA with optimal accuracy (90.6% of patients were correctly classified). The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of this cut point were 76.7% (95% confidence interval, 69.8%-82.7%), 96.4% (94.2%-98.0%), 90.0% (84.0%-94.3%), and 90.8% (87.7%-93.3%), respectively. Conclusions β-Hydroxybutyrate accurately predicts DKA in children and adolescents. More importantly, because plasma BOHB is the ideal biochemical marker of DKA, BOHB may provide a more optimal definition of DKA for management decisions and treatment targets.

OBJECTIVES We examined trends in resource use for infants undergoing emergency department evaluation for serious bacterial infection, including lumbar puncture (LP), antibiotic administration, hospitalization, and procalcitonin testing, as well as the association between procalcitonin testing and LP, administration of parenteral antibiotics, and hospitalization. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional study of infants aged 0 to 60 days who underwent emergency department evaluation for serious bacterial infection with blood and urine cultures from 2010 to 2019 in 27 hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System. We examined temporal trends in LP, antibiotic administration, hospitalization, and procalcitonin testing from 2010 to 2019. We also estimated multivariable logistic regression models for 2017–2019, adjusted for demographic factors and stratified by age ( RESULTS We studied 106 547 index visits. From 2010 to 2019, rates of LP, antibiotic administration, and hospitalization decreased more for infants aged 29 to 60 days compared with infants aged 0 to 28 days (annual decrease in odds of LP, antibiotics administration, and hospitalization: 0 to 28 days: 5%, 5%, and 3%, respectively; 29–60 days: 15%, 12%, and 7%, respectively). Procalcitonin testing increased significantly each calendar year (odds ratio per calendar year 2.19; 95% confidence interval 1.82–2.62), with the majority (91.1%) performed during 2017–2019. From 2017 to 2019, there was no association between hospital-level procalcitonin testing and any outcome studied (all P values > .05). CONCLUSIONS Rates of LP, antibiotic administration, and hospitalization decreased significantly for infants 29 to 60 days during 2010–2019. Although procalcitonin testing increased during 2017–2019, we found no association with hospital-level procalcitonin testing and patterns of resource use.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESThere are no effective interventions to prevent hospital admissions in infants with bronchiolitis. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against routine bronchodilator use for bronchiolitis. The objective of this study was to characterize trends in and outcomes associated with the use of bronchodilators for bronchiolitis.METHODSThis is a multicenter retrospective study of infants RESULTSA total of 446 696 ED visits of infants with bronchiolitis were included. Bronchodilator use, hospital admissions, and ED return visits decreased between 2010 and 2018 (all P < .001). ICU admissions and invasive and noninvasive ventilation increased over the study period (all P < .001). Hospital-level early bronchodilator use (hospitals with high versus low use) was not associated with differences in patient-level hospital admissions, ICU admissions, ED return visits, noninvasive ventilation, or invasive ventilation (all P > .05).CONCLUSIONSIn a large study of infants at children’s hospitals, bronchodilator therapy decreased significantly from 2010 to 2018. Hospital-level early bronchodilator use was not associated with a reduction in any outcomes. This study supports the current American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to limit routine use of bronchodilators in infants with bronchiolitis.

OBJECTIVES Evaluation of potential benefits of noninvasive ventilation for bronchiolitis has been precluded in part by the absence of large, adequately powered studies. The objectives of this study were to characterize temporal trends in and associations between the use of noninvasive ventilation in bronchiolitis and two clinical outcomes, invasive ventilation, and cardiac arrest. DESIGN Multicenter retrospective cross-sectional study. SETTING Forty-nine U.S. children's hospitals participating in the Pediatric Health Information System database. PATIENTS Infants under 12 months old who were admitted from the emergency department with bronchiolitis between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2018. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Primary outcomes were rates of noninvasive ventilation, invasive ventilation, and cardiac arrest. Trends over time were assessed with univariate logistic regression. In the main analysis, hospital-level multivariable logistic regression evaluated rates of outcomes including invasive ventilation and cardiac arrest among hospitals with high and low utilization of noninvasive ventilation. The study included 147,288 hospitalizations of infants with bronchiolitis. Across the entire study population, noninvasive and invasive ventilation increased between 2010 and 2018 (2.9-8.7%, 2.1-4.0%, respectively; p < 0·001). After adjustment for markers of severity of illness, hospital-level noninvasive ventilation (high vs low utilization) was not associated with differences in invasive ventilation (5.0%, 1.8%, respectively, adjusted odds ratio, 1.8; 95% CI, 0·7-4·6) but was associated with increased cardiac arrest (0.36%, 0.02%, respectively, adjusted odds ratio, 25.4; 95% CI, 4.9-131.0). CONCLUSIONS In a large cohort of infants at children's hospitals, noninvasive and invasive ventilation increased significantly from 2010 to 2018. Hospital-level noninvasive ventilation utilization was not associated with a reduction in invasive ventilation but was associated with higher rates of cardiac arrest even after controlling for severity. Noninvasive ventilation in bronchiolitis may incur an unintended higher risk of cardiac arrest, and this requires further investigation.

Pediatric visits to the Emergency Department (ED) for concussion are common and increasing. ED clinicians evaluating children with concussion should first ensure the absence of more serious injuries requiring immediate intervention, such as intracranial hemorrhage or cervical spine injury. In the ED setting, signs and symptoms of concussion are sometime subtle and often overlooked. A thorough physical exam is warranted but may be normal. Imaging and laboratory studies have no role in concussion diagnosis and should be reserved for cases where an injury requiring immediate intervention is suspected. Symptom management may include avoiding symptom-triggers (such as bright lights triggering headaches) and/or specific treatments such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories or antiemetics. Discharge instructions should include a recommendation for a brief period of rest, followed by outpatient management for return-to-activity decisions in conjunction with a primary care provider.

As both fever and pneumonia can be associated with tachypnea, we investigated the relationship between body temperature and respiratory rate (RR) in young children and whether temperature-adjusted RR enhances the prediction of pneumonia.In this retrospective cross-sectional analysis of 91,429 children5 years of age presenting to an urban pediatric emergency department, the relationship between triage RR and temperature was analyzed using regression analysis. We assessed the predictive value of temperature-adjusted RR for the diagnosis of pneumonia; diagnostic performance was evaluated for continuous RR as well as World Health Organization (WHO) age-based RR thresholds.The mean RR increased 2.6 breaths/minute for each 1°C increase in temperature. Interpatient variability was comparatively large; at any temperature, the interquartile range (75th percentile minus 25th percentile) varied from 4 to 16 breaths/minute. For predicting pneumonia, temperature- and age-adjusted RR was superior to age-adjusted RR: area under the curve (AUC) = 0.76 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75-0.78) versus AUC = 0.73 (95% CI, 0.72-0.75), respectively. Using WHO RR criteria, temperature-adjusted RR improved diagnostic discrimination, as the AUC increased from 0.58 (95% CI, 0.57-0.59) to 0.72 (95% CI, 0.70-0.73).The effects of temperature on respiratory rate are modest, with a mean increase of 2.6 breaths/minute for each 1°C rise in temperature. Despite considerable interpatient variability in respiratory rates by temperature, temperature adjustment improves the diagnostic value of respiratory rate for pneumonia.

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the reasons for pediatric emergency department (ED) transfers and the professional characteristics of transferring providers. Methods We performed a multicenter, cross-sectional survey of ED medical providers transferring patients younger than 18 years to 1 of 4 tertiary care children's hospitals. Referring providers completed surveys detailing the primary reasons for transfer and their medical training. Results The survey data were collected for 25 months, during which 641 medical providers completed 890 surveys, with an overall response rate of 25%. Most pediatric patients were seen by physicians (89.4%) with predominantly general emergency medicine training (64.2%). The median age of patients seen was 5.6 years. The 3 most common diagnoses were closed extremity fracture (12.2%), appendicitis (11.6%), and pneumonia (3.7%). The 3 most common reasons for transfer were need for medical/surgical subspecialist consultation (62.6%), admission to the inpatient unit (17.1%), and admission to the intensive care unit (6.5%). When asked about the need for supportive pediatric services, referring providers ranked pediatric subspecialty and pediatric inpatient unit availability as the highest. Conclusions Most pediatric interfacility ED transfers are referred by general emergency medicine physicians who often transfer for inpatient admission or subspecialty consultation. Understanding the needs of the community-based ED providers is an important step to forming more collaborative efforts for regionalized pediatric emergency care.

Starting in 2022, the American Board of Pediatrics will launch the Maintenance of Certification Assessment for Pediatrics: Pediatric Emergency Medicine (MOCA-Peds: PEM) longitudinal assessment, which will provide an at-home alternative to the point-in-time examination. This longitudinal assessment will help engage PEM physicians participating in continuing certification in a more flexible and continuous lifelong, self-directed learning process while still providing a summative assessment of their knowledge. This commentary provides background information on MOCA-Peds and an introduction to MOCA-Peds: PEM and how it gives the PEM physician another option to participate in continuing certification.

Objectives We aimed to determine trends and institutional variation in repeat neuroimaging in children with traumatic intracranial hemorrhage and to identify factors associated with neuroimaging modality (subsequent magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] vs computed tomography [CT]). Methods We conducted a retrospective cross‐sectional study of 35 hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System database. We included children

Background: Febrile infants aged

Objective To compare the clinical presentation of intussusception among children younger and older than 24 months of age. Design/methods We performed a retrospective cross-sectional cohort study of children treated in the emergency department, aged 1 month to 6 years, who had an abdominal ultrasound to evaluate for intussusception over a 5-year period. After stratifying by an age cut-point of 24 months, univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Results One thousand two hundred fifty-eight cases of suspected intussusception were studied; median age was 1.7 years (interquartile range, 0.8, 2.9 years), and 37% were female. Intussusception was identified in 176 children (14%); 153 (87%) were ileocolic, and 23 were ileoileal. Abdominal pain (odds ratio, 4.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5-10.5), emesis (OR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.8-6.7), bilious emesis (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.5-5.7), lethargy (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.3-5.7), rectal bleeding (OR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.4-5.7), and irritability (OR, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-0.8) were found to be predictors in those younger than 24 months. In children older than 24 months, male sex was the only predictor identified (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.1-3.7). In cases where abdominal radiographs were obtained (n = 1212), any abnormality on abdominal radiograph was found to be predictive in both age groups (OR, 7.8; 95% CI, 3.8-25.7; and OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.8-5.2, respectively). Conclusions Intussusception presents differently in children younger than 24 months compared with older children. "Traditional" clinical predictors of intussusception should be interpreted with caution when assessing children older than 2 years.

Objectives Using case review to determine whether a patient experienced a delayed diagnosis is challenging. Measurement would be more accurate if case reviewers had access to multi-expert consensus on grading the likelihood of delayed diagnosis. Our objective was to use expert consensus to create a guide for objectively grading the likelihood of delayed diagnosis of appendicitis, new-onset diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), and sepsis. Methods Case vignettes were constructed for each condition. In each vignette, a patient has the condition and had a previous emergency department (ED) visit within 7 days. Condition-specific multi-specialty expert Delphi panels reviewed the case vignettes and graded the likelihood of a delayed diagnosis on a five-point scale. Delayed diagnosis was defined as the condition being present during the previous ED visit. Consensus was defined as ≥75% agreement. In each Delphi round, panelists were given the scores from the previous round and asked to rescore. A case scoring guide was created from the consensus scores. Results Eighteen expert panelists participated. Consensus was achieved within three Delphi rounds for all appendicitis and sepsis vignettes. We reached consensus on 23/30 (77%) DKA vignettes. A case review guide was created from the consensus scores. Conclusions Multi-specialty expert reviewers can agree on the likelihood of a delayed diagnosis for cases of appendicitis and sepsis, and for most cases of DKA. We created a guide that can be used by researchers and quality improvement specialists to allow for objective case review to determine when delayed diagnoses have occurred for appendicitis, DKA, and sepsis.

Previous investigation has shown that the combined predictive value of white blood cell count and ultrasound (US) findings to be superior to either alone in children with suspected appendicitis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a diagnostic clinical pathway (DCP) leveraging the combined predictive value of these tests on computed tomography (CT) utilization and resource utilization.Retrospective cohort study comparing 8 mo of data before DCP implementation to 18 mo of data following implementation. The pathway incorporated decision-support for disposition (operative intervention, observation, or further cross-sectional imaging) based on the combined predictive value of laboratory and US data (stratifying patients into low, moderate, and high-risk groups). Study measures included CT and magnetic resonance imaging utilization, imaging-related cost, time to appendectomy, and negative appendectomy rate.Ninety-seven patients in the preintervention period were compared with 319 patients in the postintervention period. Following DCP implementation, CT utilization decreased by 86% (21% versus 3%, P 0.001). Mean time to appendectomy decreased from 8.5 to 7.2 h (P 0.001), and the negative appendectomy rate remained unchanged (5% versus 4%, P = 0.54). Magnetic resonance imaging utilization increased following pathway implementation (1% versus 7%, P = 0.02); however, median imaging-related cost was significantly lower in the postimplementation period ($283/case to $270/case, P = 0.002) CONCLUSIONS: In children with suspected appendicitis, implementation of a DCP leveraging the combined predictive value of white blood cell and US data was associated with a reduction in CT utilization, time to appendectomy, and imaging-related cost.

Objectives The aim of this study was to describe the resource utilization for children with common pediatric conditions treated in academic and nonacademic emergency departments (EDs). Methods We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional descriptive study using the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Data from 1995 to 2010 including children less than 18 years old with a diagnosis of asthma, bronchiolitis, croup, gastroenteritis, fever, febrile seizure, or afebrile seizure. Academic EDs (A-ED) were those with greater than 25% of patients seen by a trainee. For each condition, we reported the proportion of testing, medications, and disposition between A-ED and nonacademic EDs (NA-ED). Results From 1995 to 2010, approximately 450,000,000 estimated pediatric visits are represented by the survey based on 122,811 actual visits. For most common conditions, testing and disposition were comparable; however, some variation was noted. Among patients with bronchiolitis, a higher proportion of patients was admitted and had radiographs in NA-EDs (18% vs 10% and 56% vs 45%, respectively). For children with croup, radiographs were performed more often at NA-EDs (27% vs 6%). Among those with febrile seizures, more lumbar punctures were performed in NA-EDs (14% vs 0%). In children with afebrile seizures, more head computed tomography scans were obtained at NA-EDs (34% vs 21%). Conclusion Among pediatric patients with croup, bronchiolitis, and febrile and afebrile seizure, higher resource utilization and admissions were observed in NA-EDs. These preliminary findings from a national survey require a more detailed investigation into the variation in care between A-ED and NA-ED settings.

OBJECTIVE: While emergency medicine (EM) physicians treat the majority of pediatric EM (PEM) patients in the United States, little is known about their PEM experience during training. The primary objective was to characterize the pediatric case exposure and compare to established EM residency training curricula among EM residents across five U.S. residency programs. METHODS: We performed a multicenter medical record review of all pediatric patients (aged

Background There is a growing body of evidence to support the utility of lung point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in pediatric patients with multiple pulmonary pathologies, particularly pneumonia. As we increase our use of lung POCUS for pediatric patients with respiratory complaints, we must be mindful of the normal anatomy and sonographic findings within the pediatric chest and aware of how to distinguish normal findings (e.g., thymus) from pathologic findings (e.g., consolidation). Case Reports We report four cases of pediatric patients who presented to the Emergency Department with respiratory complaints for which POCUS was able to distinguish lung consolidation and normal thymus in the anterior chest. Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This? The use of lung ultrasound to detect pneumonia is extensively documented in the pediatric literature. Emergency physicians may not be aware of how to discriminate the normal sonographic appearance of the thymus from lung consolidation on POCUS. The ability to identify normal and pathologic findings within the pediatric chest by POCUS will be increasingly important to appropriately reduce the use of plain radiography for pediatric patients with respiratory complaints.

OBJECTIVE To estimate rates of critical medical and neurosurgical interventions and resource utilization for children with traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). METHODS This was a retrospective study of children younger than 18 years hospitalized in 1 of 35 hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System from 2009 to 2019 for ICH. We defined critical intervention as a critical medical (hyperosmotic agents and intubation) or neurosurgical intervention. We determined rates of critical interventions, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and repeat neuroimaging. We used hierarchical logistic regression to identify high-level factors associated with undergoing critical interventions, controlling for hospital-level effects. RESULTS There were 12,714 children with ICH included in the study. Median (interquartile range) age was 4.3 (0.7-11.0) years. Twelve percent (n = 1470) of children underwent a critical clinical intervention. Critical medical interventions occurred in 10% (n = 1219), and neurosurgical interventions occurred in 3% (n = 419). Intensive care unit admission occurred in 44% (n = 5565), whereas repeat neuroimaging occurred in 40% (n = 5072). Among ICU patients, 79% (n = 4366) did not undergo a critical intervention. Of the 11,244 children with no critical interventions, 39% (n = 4366) underwent ICU admission, and 37% (n = 4099) repeat neuroimaging. After controlling for hospital, children with isolated subdural (P = 0.013) and isolated subarachnoid (P < 0.001) hemorrhage were less likely to receive critical interventions. CONCLUSIONS Critical medical interventions occurred in 10% of children with ICH, and neurosurgical interventions occurred in 3%. Intensive care unit admission and repeat neuroimaging are common, even among those who did not undergo critical interventions. Selective utilization of ICU admission and repeat neuroimaging in children who are at low risk of requiring critical interventions could improve overall quality of care and decrease unnecessary resource utilization.

Importance Delayed diagnosis of appendicitis is associated with worse outcomes than timely diagnosis, but clinical features associated with diagnostic delay are uncertain, and the extent to which delays are preventable is unclear. Objective To determine clinical features associated with delayed diagnosis of pediatric appendicitis, assess the frequency of preventable delay, and compare delay outcomes. Design, setting, and participants This case-control study included 748 children treated at 5 pediatric emergency departments in the US between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019. Participants were younger than 21 years and had a diagnosis of appendicitis. Exposures Individual features of appendicitis and pretest likelihood of appendicitis were measured by the Pediatric Appendicitis Risk Calculator (pARC). Main outcomes and measures Case patients had a delayed diagnosis of appendicitis, defined as 2 emergency department visits leading to diagnosis and a case review showing the patient likely had appendicitis at the first visit. Control patients had a single emergency department visit yielding a diagnosis. Clinical features and pARC scores were compared by case-control status. Preventability of delay was assessed as unlikely, possible, or likely. The proportion of children with indicated imaging based on an evidence-based cost-effectiveness threshold was determined. Outcomes of delayed diagnosis were compared by case-control status, including hospital length of stay, perforation, and multiple surgical procedures. Results A total of 748 children (mean [SD] age, 10.2 [4.3] years; 392 boys [52.4%]; 427 White children [57.1%]) were included in the study; 471 (63.0%) had a delayed diagnosis of appendicitis, and 277 (37.0%) had no delay in diagnosis. Children with a delayed diagnosis were less likely to have pain with walking (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.16; 95% CI, 0.10-0.25), maximal pain in the right lower quadrant (aOR, 0.12; 95% CI, 0.07-0.19), and abdominal guarding (aOR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.21-0.51), and were more likely to have a complex chronic condition (aOR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.05-5.23). The pretest likelihood of appendicitis was 39% to 52% lower in children with a delayed vs timely diagnosis. Among children with a delayed diagnosis, 109 cases (23.1%) were likely to be preventable, and 247 (52.4%) were possibly preventable. Indicated imaging was performed in 104 (22.0%) to 289 (61.3%) children with delayed diagnosis, depending on the imputation method for missing data on white blood cell count. Patients with delayed diagnosis had longer hospital length of stay (mean difference between the groups, 2.8 days; 95% CI, 2.3-3.4 days) and higher perforation rates (OR, 7.8; 95% CI, 5.5-11.3) and were more likely to undergo 2 or more surgical procedures (OR, 8.0; 95% CI, 2.0-70.4). Conclusions and relevance In this case-control study, delayed appendicitis was associated with initially milder symptoms but worse outcomes. These findings suggest that a majority of delayed diagnoses were at least possibly preventable and that many of these patients did not undergo indicated imaging, suggesting an opportunity to prevent delayed diagnosis of appendicitis in some children.

Proficient physician performance is crucial to high-quality health care. Physicians must acquire and apply new knowledge and skills throughout their careers. Successful physician performance improvement requires leadership with vision and a strategic plan, engagement of front line providers, resources and support to improve, and feedback and communication that facilitates a culture of learning and improvement. A fluid and balanced performance dashboard, aligned with local improvement efforts, can inform individuals and groups of physicians, ensure the trust of other stakeholders, and improve the quality of patient care. We propose a framework for the development of a performance program for pediatric emergency physicians and share the experience of development and use of the program at a single tertiary care site.

The approach to febrile young infants remains challenging. This review serves as an update on the care of febrile infants less than 90 days of age with a focus on the changing epidemiology of serious bacterial infection (SBI), refinement of management strategies based on biomarkers, and the development of novel diagnostics.There is high variability in the emergency department management of febrile young infants without significant differences in outcomes. C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin have emerged as valuable risk-stratification tests to identify high-risk infants. When interpreting automated urinalyses for suspected urinary tract infection (UTI), urine concentration influences the diagnostic value of pyuria. Novel diagnostics including RNA biosignatures and protein signatures show promise in better identifying young febrile infants at risk of serious infection.The majority of febrile infants with an SBI will have a UTI but the diagnosis of invasive bacterial infection in infants continues to be challenging. The use of procalcitonin and CRP as biomarkers in prediction algorithms facilitates identification of low-risk infants.

Opportunities to learn advanced airway management skills on pediatric patients in the emergency department are limited. Current strategies have focused largely on traditional didactics coupled with procedural skills training using simulation. However, these approaches are limited in their exposure to anatomic variation and realism. Here, we describe the development and assessment of an advanced airway curriculum that integrates videolaryngoscopic recordings obtained during actual patient intubations into a series of interactive educational sessions. Trainees and attending physicians were surveyed anonymously to assess the impact of participation in the curriculum. A mixed methods approach to statistical analysis was used. Rating questions were used to evaluate the relative impact of this approach over other traditional strategies and recurrent themes within open-ended questions were identified. Participants reported this to be a highly effective means of learning about pediatric laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation and regarded it more highly than other traditional educational approaches. Identified benefits included repetitive exposure, approaches to laryngoscopy, the realism of teaching using real and varied anatomy, and the opportunities to identify and troubleshoot difficulty in a learning environment. An advanced pediatric airway curriculum that integrates intubation videos obtained during videolaryngoscopy was highly regarded by pediatric emergency medicine providers. Content emphasis can be shifted to meet the needs of pediatric emergency medicine providers with all levels of skill and experience.

Concerns about radiation exposure have led to a decrease in the use of computed tomography in suspected appendicitis, with increased reliance on ultrasound. Children with suspected appendicitis should be risk stratified using a combination of clinical signs and symptoms, white blood cell count, and ultrasound in order to guide further evaluation and management. Magnetic resonance imaging is a promising imaging modality but remains costly. Ongoing research is evaluating the role of nonoperative management in children with confirmed appendicitis.

Pediatric emergency care research suffers from a generalizability problem. Such research in the United States largely relies on data collected from within academic medical centers or large health systems with the infrastructure to conduct and publish clinical research. Such research also includes studies ranging from trials of fluid infusion rates for diabetic ketoacidosis1 from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network to retrospective cohort studies defining the incidence of herpes simplex virus by week of life.2 This research is extremely valuable because it informs how to distribute limited health care resources and where to focus efforts to improve care. However, academic and large health systems are a narrow lens through which to view care because 90% of children do not visit academic pediatric emergency departments (EDs) but rather visit community general EDs.3 Children who visit academic EDs differ from the larger population of children demographically, especially related to their access to, need for, and receipt of acute care. Because of these differences, epidemiological insights cannot always be generalized beyond the populations that academic centers serve. Large, population-based, administrative databases offer 1 solution to this problem. Administrative data are collected in the course of routine clinical operations and include claims, which are billing records. These databases do not typically contain clinical information and instead contain demographics, diagnoses, procedures, and billing information, such as charges. They therefore represent a blurrier but wider field of view than the narrow lens of academia-based investigation, thereby allowing more complete insight into diseases and outcomes. Furthermore, these databases eliminate the selection bias introduced by studying only children who present to academic hospitals, which often outweighs the advantages of prospective data collection. The main advantages of administrative data …

Eighty-eight percent of pediatric emergency department (ED) visits occur in general EDs. Exposure to critically ill children during emergency medicine (EM) training has not been well described.The objective was to characterize the critically ill pediatric EM case exposure among EM residents.This is a secondary analysis of a multicenter retrospective review of pediatric patients (aged 18 years) seen by the 2015 graduating resident physicians at four U.S. EM training programs. The per-resident exposure to Emergency Severity Index (ESI) Level 1 pediatric patients was measured. Resident-level counts of pediatric patients were measured; specific counts were classified by age and Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Network diagnostic categories.There were 31,552 children seen by 51 residents across all programs; 434 children (1.3%) had an ESI of 1. The median patient age was 8 years (interquartile range [IQR] 3-12 years). The median overall pediatric critical case exposure per resident was 6 (IQR 3-12 cases). The median trauma and medical exposure was 2 (IQR 0-3) and 3 (IQR 2-10), respectively. For 13 out of 20 diagnostic categories, at least 50% of residents did not see any critical care case in that category. Sixty-eight percent of residents saw 10 or fewer critically ill cases by the end of training.Pediatric critical care exposure during EM training is very limited. These findings underscore the importance of monitoring trainees' case experience to inform program-specific curricula and to develop strategies to increase exposure and resident entrustment, as well as further research in this area.

To define and measure complications across a broad set of acute pediatric conditions in emergency departments using administrative data, and to assess the validity of these definitions by comparing resource utilization between children with and without complications.Using local consensus, we predefined complications for 16 acute conditions including appendicitis, diabetic ketoacidosis, ovarian torsion, stroke, testicular torsion, and 11 others. We studied patients under age 18 years using 3 data years from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statewide Databases of Maryland and New York. We measured complications by condition. Resource utilization was compared between patients with and without complications, including hospital length of stay, and charges.We analyzed 27 087 emergency department visits for a serious condition. The most common was appendicitis (n = 16 794), with 24.3% of cases complicated by 1 or more of perforation (24.1%), abscess drainage (2.8%), bowel resection (0.3%), or sepsis (0.9%). Sepsis had the highest mortality (5.0%). Children with complications had higher resource utilization: condition-specific length of stay was longer when complications were present, except ovarian and testicular torsion. Hospital charges were higher among children with complications (P .05) for 15 of 16 conditions, with a difference in medians from $3108 (testicular torsion) to $13 7694 (stroke).Clinically meaningful complications were measurable and were associated with increased resource utilization. Complication rates determined using administrative data may be used to compare outcomes and improve healthcare delivery for children.

OBJECTIVES:Unlike community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), there is a paucity of data characterizing the patient demographics and hospitalization characteristics of children with aspiration pneumonia. We used a large national database of US children’s hospitals to assess the patient and hospitalization characteristics associated with aspiration pneumonia and compared these characteristics to patients with CAP.METHODS:We identified children hospitalized with a diagnosis of aspiration pneumonia or CAP at 47 hospitals included in the Pediatric Health Information System between 2009 and 2014. We evaluated whether differences exist in patient characteristics (median age and proportion of patients with a complex chronic condition), and hospital characteristics (length of stay, ICU admission, cost, and 30-day readmission rate) between children with aspiration pneumonia and CAP. Lastly, we assessed whether seasonal variability exists within these 2 conditions.RESULTS:Over the 6-year study period, there were 12 097 children hospitalized with aspiration pneumonia, and 121 489 with CAP. Compared with children with CAP, children with aspiration pneumonia were slightly younger and more likely to have an associated complex chronic condition. Those with aspiration pneumonia had longer hospitalizations, higher rates of ICU admission, and higher 30-day readmission rates. Additionally, the median cost for hospitalization was 2.4 times higher for children with aspiration pneumonia than for children with CAP. More seasonal variation was observed for CAP compared with aspiration pneumonia hospitalizations.CONCLUSIONS:Aspiration pneumonia preferentially affects children with medical complexity and, as such, accounts for longer and more costly hospitalizations and higher rates of ICU admission and readmission rates.

Objectives The presence of critically ill patients may impact care for other ED patients. We sought to evaluate whether the presence of a critically ill child was associated with the time to (1) receipt of the first medication among other patients, and (2) administration of diagnosis-specific medications. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study of all paediatric ED visits over 3 years. Patients were exposed if they arrived during the first hour of a critically ill patient's care. The primary outcome was the time from arrival to first medication administration. Secondary outcomes were time to corticosteroids in asthma and time to antibiotics for fever/neutropenia. We modelled times to medication using median regression, adjusting for demographics, arrival time and weekday, and census (number of patients in the ED). Results We analysed 170 112 visits. Median times to first medication for those exposed to 0, 1 and >1 simultaneous critically ill patients were 90 min (IQR 54–146), 96 min (IQR 58–157) and 113 min (IQR 72–166), respectively (p

The optimal staffing model for emergency departments (EDs) is not known. Improving staffing could lead to more timely, efficient, and effective care. We created a model of staffing to identify times of staffing limitation by provider type.We analyzed data from an academic pediatric ED with 60,000 visits per year. Each 10-minute interval from January 1, 2011, through December 31, 2012, was categorized as nonlimited (no staffing limitation), space limited (≥2 patients in the waiting room with wait times30 minutes and ≥ 80% ED bed occupancy), nurse limited (≥2 patients in the waiting room with wait times30 min and80% ED bed occupancy), or physician limited (≥2 patients in examination rooms who have waited30 minutes for a physician) using computer modeling. We calculated the percentage of time each type of limitation was in effect and the median lengths of stay for patients presenting during times of each category of limitation.The ED was space limited 5.0% of the time, nurse limited 16.1% of the time, and physician limited 0.1% of the time. In nonlimited times, length of stay was 201 minutes (interquartile range, 128-301), whereas patients presenting during space-limited, nurse-limited, and physician-limited times had statistically significantly higher LOS of 265 (187-360), 244 (169-337), and 247 (174-334) minutes, respectively.Times identified as space and staffing limited were associated with longer LOS. This computer model could be used to rapidly identify targeted staffing needs and then measure the effect of modifying staffing.

Objectives: Biomarkers that can measure illness severity and predict the risk of delayed recovery may be useful in guiding pediatric septic shock. Amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide has not been assessed in pediatric septic patients at the time of presentation to the emergency department prior to any interventions. The primary aim was to assess if emergency department amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide is associated with worse outcomes and severity of illness. Design: Prospective observational pilot study. Settings: Tertiary free-standing children’s hospital. Patients: Children 0–17 years old with a diagnosis of septic shock were enrolled. Patients with preexisting cardiac and renal dysfunction were excluded. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide analysis was performed on samples obtained in the emergency department prior to any intervention. The association between biomarkers and clinical outcomes and illness severity using Pediatric RISk of Mortality 3 were assessed. Eighty-two patients with septic shock underwent analysis. The median (interquartile range) amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels was 394 pg/mL (102–1,392 pg/mL). Each decile change increase in amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide was associated with a change in ICU length of stay by 8.7%, (95% CI, 2.4–15.5), hospital length of stay by 5.7% (95% CI, 0.4–11.2), organ dysfunction by 5.1% (95% CI, 1.8–8.5), a higher inotropic score at 12, 24, and 36 hours, and longer time requiring vasoactive agents. There was a significant correlation between baseline amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and the Pediatric RISk of Mortality 3 score (Spearman rho = 0.247; p = 0.029). Conclusions: This pilot study shows an association between emergency department amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide on presentation and worse septic shock outcomes and amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels correlates with an ICU severity score.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase (sFLT), are biomarkers of endothelial activation. Vascular endothelial growth factor and sFLT have been associated with sepsis severity among adults, but pediatric data are lacking. The goal of this study was to assess VEGF and sFLT as predictors of outcome for children with sepsis. METHODS Biomarkers measured for each patient at time of presentation to the emergency department were compared in children with septic shock versus children with sepsis without shock. For children with septic shock, the associations between biomarker levels and clinical outcome measures, including intensive care unit and hospital length of stay, vasoactive inotrope score, and measures of organ dysfunction, were assessed. RESULTS Soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase and VEGF were elevated in children with septic shock (n = 73) compared with those with sepsis (n = 93). Elevated sFLT but not VEGF was associated with longer intensive care unit length of stay (P = 0.003), longer time requiring vasoactive agents (P < 0.001), higher maximum vasoactive inotrope score (P < 0.001), and higher maximum pediatric logistic organ dysfunction score (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Vascular endothelial growth factor and sFLT measured in the emergency department are elevated in children with septic shock, and elevated sFLT but not VEGF is associated with worse clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Although oral antibiotics are recommended for the management of most urinary tract infections (UTIs), the administration of parenteral antibiotics before emergency department (ED) discharge is common. We investigated the relationship between the administration of a single dose of parenteral antibiotics before ED discharge and revisits requiring admission among children with UTIs. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of administrative data from 36 pediatric hospitals was performed. Patients aged 29 days to 2 years who were evaluated in the ED with a UTI between 2010 and 2016 were studied. Primary outcome was adjusted 3-day ED revisit rates resulting in admission. All revisits, regardless of disposition, served as a secondary outcome. Average treatment effects were estimated by using inverse probability weighted regression, with adjustment for demographic factors, diagnostic testing, ED medications, and hospital-level factors. RESULTS: We studied 29 919 children with a median age of 8.6 (interquartile range: 5.1–13.8) months. Of those studied, 36% of the children received parenteral antibiotics before discharge. Patients who received parenteral antibiotics had similar adjusted rates of revisits leading to admission as those who did not receive parenteral antibiotics (1.3% vs 1.0%, respectively; risk difference: 0.3% [95% confidence interval: −0.01% to 0.6%]), although overall revisit rates were higher among patients who received parenteral antibiotics (4.8% vs 3.3%; risk difference 1.5% [95% confidence interval: 0.9% to 2.1%]). CONCLUSIONS: Among discharged patients, a parenteral dose of antibiotics did not reduce revisits leading to admission, supporting the goal of discharging patients with oral antibiotics alone for most children with UTIs.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The ability of the chest radiograph (CXR) to exclude the diagnosis of pneumonia in children is unclear. We sought to determine the negative predictive value of CXR in children with suspected pneumonia. METHODS: Children 3 months to 18 years of age undergoing CXRs for suspected pneumonia in a tertiary-care pediatric emergency department (ED) were prospectively enrolled. Children currently receiving antibiotics and those with underlying chronic medical conditions were excluded. The primary outcome was defined as a physician-ascribed diagnosis of pneumonia independent of radiographic findings. CXR results were classified as positive, equivocal, or negative according to radiologist interpretation. Children with negative CXRs and without a clinical diagnosis of pneumonia were managed for 2 weeks after the ED visit. Children subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia during the follow-up period were considered to have had false-negative CXRs at the ED visit. RESULTS: There were 683 children enrolled during the 2-year study period, with a median age of 3.1 years (interquartile range 1.4–5.9 years). There were 457 children (72.8%) with negative CXRs; 44 of these children (8.9%) were clinically diagnosed with pneumonia, and 42 (9.3%) were given antibiotics for other bacterial syndromes. Of the 411 children with negative CXRs who were managed without antibiotics, 5 were subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia within 2 weeks (negative predictive value of CXR 98.8%; 95% confidence interval 97.0%–99.6%). CONCLUSIONS: A negative CXR excludes pneumonia in the majority of children. Children with negative CXRs and low clinical suspicion for pneumonia can be safely observed without antibiotic therapy.

BACKGROUND: Patients with septic hip arthritis require surgical drainage, but they can be difficult to distinguish from patients with Lyme arthritis. The ability of synovial fluid white blood cell (WBC) counts to help discriminate between septic and Lyme arthritis of the hip has not been investigated. METHODS: We assembled a retrospective cohort of patients ≤21 years of age with hip monoarticular arthritis and a synovial fluid culture obtained who presented to 1 of 3 emergency departments located in Lyme disease endemic areas. Septic arthritis was defined as a positive synovial fluid culture result or synovial fluid pleocytosis (WBC count ≥50 000 cells per µL) with a positive blood culture result. Lyme arthritis was defined as positive 2-tiered Lyme disease serology results and negative synovial fluid bacterial culture results. All other patients were classified as having other arthritis. We compared median synovial fluid WBC counts by arthritis type. RESULTS: Of the 238 eligible patients, 26 (11%) had septic arthritis, 32 (13%) had Lyme arthritis, and 180 (76%) had other arthritis. Patients with septic arthritis had a higher median synovial fluid WBC count (126 130 cells per µL; interquartile range 83 303–209 332 cells per µL) than patients with Lyme arthritis (53 955 cells per µL; interquartile range 33 789–73 375 cells per µL). Eighteen patients (56%) with Lyme arthritis had synovial fluid WBC counts ≥50 000 cells per µL. Of the 94 patients who underwent surgical drainage, 13 were later diagnosed with Lyme arthritis. CONCLUSIONS: In Lyme disease endemic areas, synovial fluid WBC counts cannot always help differentiate septic from Lyme arthritis. Rapid Lyme diagnostics could help avoid unnecessary operative procedures in patients with Lyme arthritis.

Objectives Differences in emergency care for children exist between general and pediatric emergency departments (EDs). Some pediatric quality measures are available but are not routinely employed nationwide. We sought to create a short list of applied measures that would provide a starting point for EDs to measure pediatric emergency care quality and to compare care between general and pediatric EDs for these measures. Methods Previously reported lists comprising 465 pediatric emergency care quality measures were reconciled. Preset criteria were used to create a diverse list of quality measures measurable using a national database. We used the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2010 to 2015 to measure performance. Measures were excluded for total observation counts under a prespecified power threshold, being unmeasurable in the data set, or for missing clear definitions. Using survey-weighted statistics, we reported summary performance (mean, proportion, or count) with 95% confidence intervals for each analyzed quality measure and compared general and pediatric ED performance. Results Among 465 quality measures, 28 (6%) were included in the analysis, including seven condition-specific measures and 21 general measures. We analyzed a sample of 36,430 visits corresponding to 179.0 million survey-weighted ED visits, of which 150.8 million (84.3%) were in general EDs. Performance was better in pediatric EDs for three of seven condition-specific measures, including antibiotics for viral infections (-6.2%), chest X-rays for asthma (-18.7%), and topical anesthesia for wound closures (+25.7%). Performance was similar for four of seven condition-specific measures: computed tomography for head trauma, steroids for asthma, steroids for croup, and oral rehydration for dehydration. Compared with pediatric EDs, general EDs discharged and transferred higher proportions of children, had shorter lengths of stay, and sent patients home with fewer prescriptions. General EDs obtained fewer pain scores for injured children. Pediatric EDs had a lower proportion of pediatric visits in which patients left against medical advice. General and pediatric EDs had similar rates of mortality, left without being seen, incomplete vital signs, labs in nonacute patients, and similar numbers of medications given per patient. Conclusions Using a national sample of ED visits, we demonstrated the feasibility of using nationally representative data to assess quality measures for children cared for in the ED. Differences between pediatric and general ED care identify targets for quality improvement.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to develop and validate a clinical calculator that can be used to quantify risk for appendicitis on a continuous scale for patients with acute abdominal pain. METHODS: The pediatric appendicitis risk calculator (pARC) was developed and validated through secondary analyses of 3 distinct cohorts. The derivation sample included visits to 9 pediatric emergency departments between March 2009 and April 2010. The validation sample included visits to a single pediatric emergency department from 2003 to 2004 and 2013 to 2015. Variables evaluated were as follows: age, sex, temperature, nausea and/or vomiting, pain duration, pain location, pain with walking, pain migration, guarding, white blood cell count, and absolute neutrophil count. We used stepwise regression to develop and select the best model. Test performance of the pARC was compared with the Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS). RESULTS: The derivation sample included 2423 children, 40% of whom had appendicitis. The validation sample included 1426 children, 35% of whom had appendicitis. The final pARC model included the following variables: sex, age, duration of pain, guarding, pain migration, maximal tenderness in the right-lower quadrant, and absolute neutrophil count. In the validation sample, the pARC exhibited near perfect calibration and a high degree of discrimination (area under the curve: 0.85; 95% confidence interval: 0.83 to 0.87) and outperformed the PAS (area under the curve: 0.77; 95% confidence interval: 0.75 to 0.80). By using the pARC, almost half of patients in the validation cohort could be accurately classified as at 8. CONCLUSIONS: In our validation cohort of patients with acute abdominal pain, the pARC accurately quantified risk for appendicitis.

BACKGROUND: Emergency department (ED) revisits are used as a measure of care quality. Many EDs measure only revisits to the same facility, underestimating true rates. We sought to determine the frequency, location, and predictors of ED revisits to the same or a different ED. METHODS: We studied ED discharges for children RESULTS: Revisits across 261 EDs occurred after 5.9% of 4.3 million discharges. A per-ED median 21.9% of revisits were DHRs (interquartile range 14.2%–34.6%). Measuring only same-hospital revisits underestimated total revisits by 17.4%. The proportions of revisits that were DHRs by increasing volume quartile were 28.1%, 25.5%, 22.6%, and 14.5%. The adjusted risk of DHR was lower for increasing quartiles of pediatric volume (adjusted odds ratio for highest versus lowest quartile 0.27; 95% confidence interval, 0.19–0.36). CONCLUSIONS: Measuring ED revisits only at the index ED significantly underestimates total revisits. Lower pediatric volume is associated with higher DHRs as a proportion of revisits. When using revisits as a measure of emergency care quality, effort should be made to assess revisits to different EDs.

Isolated amnesia is an uncommon presenting complaint in the pediatric age group. We report the case of an 18-year-old woman who presented with the acute onset of memory difficulty and an otherwise normal neurologic examination. Brain magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated inflammation in the bilateral temporal lobes. Serum and cerebrospinal fluid testing ultimately revealed a diagnosis of autoimmune encephalitis. Although rare, the acute onset of isolated amnesia deserves a prompt, comprehensive evaluation.

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the incidence and recent trends in serious pediatric emergency conditions. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample from 2008 through 2014, and included patients with age below 18 years with a serious condition, defined as each diagnosis group in the diagnosis grouping system with a severity classification system score of 5. We calculated national incidences for each serious condition using annualized weighted condition counts divided by annual United States census child population counts. We determined the highest-incidence serious conditions over the study period and calculated percentage changes between 2008 and 2014 for each serious condition using a Poisson model. Results The 2008 incidence of serious conditions across the national child population was 1721 visits per million person-years (95% confidence interval, 1485-1957). This incidence increased to 2020 visits per million person-years (95% confidence interval, 1661-2379) in 2014. The most common serious conditions were serious respiratory diseases, septicemia, and serious neurologic diseases. Anaphylaxis was the condition with the largest change, increasing by 147%, from 101 to 249 visits per million person-years. Conclusions The most common serious condition in children presenting to United States emergency departments is serious respiratory disease. Anaphylaxis is the fastest increasing serious condition. Additional research attention to these diagnoses is warranted.

Oral antibiotics effectively treat most pediatric urinary tract infections (UTIs); however, children with UTIs are frequently admitted. We examined variation and trends in admission for children with UTIs plus investigated the relationship between admission and emergency department (ED) revisits for those initially managed on an outpatient basis. We hypothesized that hospitals would have similar 3-day revisit rates regardless of the admission rate at the index visit.This was a retrospective analysis of 36 hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System. ED visits for children aged2 years presenting with UTI between 2010 and 2016 were studied. Main outcomes were age-stratified and included admission and 3-day ED revisit rates. Regression analyses were used to test hospital-level associations between outcomes and linear temporal trends.A total of 41,792 visits were studied. The overall admission rate was 27%. The admission rate was 89% for children aged2 months and 15% for those aged 2 to 24 months. Interhospital admission rates varied from 6% to 64%. Admission and revisit rates were inversely related (mean change, -0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.13 to -0.02 per 1% increase in admission rate); however, lower admission rates were not associated with increased revisits leading to admission (mean change, -0.02; 95% CI, -0.07 to 0.03). Over the study period, admission rates were stable (test for linear trend: adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.99; 95% CI, 0.95-1.02); however, among infants aged2 months, admissions decreased (aOR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.97).A substantial variation in admission rates exists for children with UTI. Although hospitals with lower admission rates had higher revisit rates, those hospitals did not have an increase in revisits with subsequent admission, supporting the goal of outpatient management.

The objective of this study was to examine the use of WBC count and polymorphonuclear leukocyte differential (PMN%) for improving the predictive value of ultrasound (US) in children with suspected appendicitis.We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children undergoing US for suspected appendicitis between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012 at a single children's hospital (n=845). Negative (NPV) and positive predictive values (PPV) for appendicitis were calculated for common constellations of US findings and compared with and without the use of laboratory thresholds (WBC9×10(3)/μL and PMN%65% for PPV; WBC≤9×10(3)/μL and PMN%≤65% for NPV).Fifty-one percent of US were considered "equivocal" (ie, appendix incompletely visualized, no primary or secondary signs, or presence of fluid only) and NPV increased significantly for this cohort using laboratory thresholds (41.9% vs 95.8%; p0.001). Primary signs of appendicitis, without secondary signs, were documented in 18% of examinations, and the PPV associated with this cohort increased from 79.1% to 91.3% (p0.001) using laboratory thresholds. Secondary signs with or without primary signs were documented in 24% of examinations, and laboratory thresholds improved the PPV in this cohort from 89.1% to 96.8% (p0.001). Guidelines recommending against the use of CT for very high-risk and low-risk categories (NPV95% and PPV95%) on the basis of combined US and laboratory data could have reduced the number of CTs by 27.1% (101 of 373) during the study period.The incorporation of WBC count and PMN% can substantially improve the predictive value of US in the diagnosis of suspected appendicitis in children.

Objective To determine the predictive value of ultrasonography (US) for appendicitis in children when combined with clinical assessment based on the Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS). Study design Observational study of children aged 3-18 years who had an US examination for possible appendicitis. A PAS was calculated on the basis of historical elements, examination, and laboratory studies and was used to classify patients into 3 risk groups (low, medium, high). The predictive value of the PAS for appendicitis was calculated and stratified by the result of the US (positive, negative, or equivocal). Results A total of 728 children with a median age 11.7 (IQR 7.8-14.9) years were studied; 29% had appendicitis. The negative predictive value of US decreased with increasing PAS-based risk assignment: low risk 1.00 (95% CI, 0.97-1.00), medium risk 0.94 (0.91-0.97), and high risk 0.81 (0.73-0.89). With increasing PAS, the positive predictive value increased: low risk 0.73 (0.47-0.99), medium risk 0.90 (0.82-0.98), and high risk 0.97 (0.95-1.0). Among children with equivocal ultrasound results, the proportion with appendicitis ranged from 0.09 (0.0-0.19) for low-risk patients to 0.47 (0.33-0.61) among for high-risk patients. Conclusion Ultrasound findings in children with possible appendicitis should be integrated with clinical assessment, such as a clinical score, to determine next steps in management. Rates of false-negative US increase with increasing PAS, and false-positive US results occur more often with lower PAS. When discordance exists between US results and the clinical assessment, serial examinations or further imaging are warranted.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Migraine headache is a common pediatric complaint among emergency department (ED) patients. There are limited trials on abortive therapies in the ED. The objective of this study was to apply a comparative effectiveness approach to investigate acute medication regimens for the prevention of ED revisits. METHODS: Retrospective study using administrative data (Pediatric Health Information System) from 35 pediatric EDs (2009–2012). Children aged 7 to 18 years with a principal diagnosis of migraine headache were studied. The primary outcome was a revisit to the ED within 3 days for discharged patients. The primary analysis compared the treatment regimens and individual medications on the risk for revisit. RESULTS: The study identified 32 124 children with migraine; 27 317 (85%) were discharged, and 5.5% had a return ED visit within 3 days. At the index visit, the most common medications included nonopioid analgesics (66%), dopamine antagonists (50%), diphenhydramine (33%), and ondansetron (21%). Triptans and opiate medications were administered infrequently (3% each). Children receiving metoclopramide had a 31% increased odds for an ED revisit within 3 days compared with prochlorperazine. Diphenhydramine with dopamine antagonists was associated with 27% increased odds of an ED revisit compared with dopamine antagonists alone. Children receiving ondansetron had similar revisit rates to those receiving dopamine antagonists. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of children with migraines are successfully discharged from the ED and only 1 in 18 required a revisit within 3 days. Prochlorperazine appears to be superior to metoclopramide in preventing a revisit, and diphenhydramine use is associated with increased rates of return.