[Glass doors: one more danger in the pediatric age group].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Quintero Otero.
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BACKGROUND: Pediatric intensive care units have developed as treatment areas with a concentration of specialized equipment and personnel. Critically ill children often need to be moved to and from these critical care areas for diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. Such transport may pose additional risk to the critically ill patient. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In order to assess the problems encountered in our transport process, a prospective study was performed. A questionnaire was undertaken to evaluate the transport of critically ill children hospitalized in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar from Cádiz over an eleven month period. RESULTS: Two hundred children transported were evaluated. Forty-seven (23.5%) were interhospital transported patients and one hundred fifty-three (76.5%) were intrahospital transported patients. The most common type of intrahospital transport involves transfers between the operating room and the intensive care unit (73 patients, 36.5%). Deterioration in respiratory, cardiovascular and other physiological systems was registered in twenty-two patients (11%). One hundred four equipment-related mishaps were noted in eighty-six patients (43%) during the transport process. Dislodgement of intravenous catheters, loss of oxygen supply, endotracheal tube problems and equipment malfunction were the most common mishaps noted. CONCLUSIONS: Our results would suggest that more training regarding the transport of the critically ill child are needed in our area.
Foreign body aspiration is not an uncommon problem in infants and toddlers, and should be considered as a serious and sometimes fatal condition. We report three cases of foreign body aspiration which were located below the vocal cords, causing a nearly complete airway obstruction with severe respiratory distress. In all cases they were successfully removed in the emergency department using a laryngoscope and Magill forceps. It is important for physicians who take care of children in emergency department to know the management of these life-threatening situations. Knowledge of pediatric advanced life support measures with airway management and proper training in laryngoscope and Magill forceps management can save lives in many children.
We have performed 18 plasmapheresis [correction of plasma exchange] sessions in a group of 5 patients diagnosed as having Guillain-Barré Syndrome. These patients were diagnosed according to clinical, analytical and electromyographic criteria. In three patients we observed an obvious clinical improvement during the treatment. In one of the patients there was no appreciable evolution. This patient suffered from acute lymphocytic leukemia. We were unable to evaluate the remaining patient since this child underwent posthypoxic encephalopathy secondary to cardiac arrest. On the basis of the results obtained, we advocate the treatment of this polyneuropathy by plasmapheresis [correction of plasma exchange].
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