scholarly journals Clinical significance of potential drug–drug interactions in a pediatric intensive care unit: A single-center retrospective study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0246754
Author(s):  
Yu Hyeon Choi ◽  
In Hwa Lee ◽  
Mihee Yang ◽  
Yoon Sook Cho ◽  
Yun Hee Jo ◽  
...  

Despite the high prevalence of potential drug–drug interactions in pediatric intensive care units, their clinical relevance and significance are unclear. We assessed the characteristics and risk factors of clinically relevant potential drug–drug interactions to facilitate their efficient monitoring in pediatric intensive care units. This retrospective cohort study reviewed the medical records of 159 patients aged <19 years who were hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit at Seoul National University Hospital (Seoul, Korea) for ≥3 days between August 2019 and February 2020. Potential drug–drug interactions were screened using the Micromedex Drug-Reax® system. Clinical relevance of each potential drug–drug interaction was reported with official terminology, magnitude of severity, and causality, and the association with the patient’s clinical characteristics was assessed. In total, 115 patients (72.3%) were exposed to 592 potential interactions of 258 drug pairs. In 16 patients (10.1%), 22 clinically relevant potential drug–drug interactions were identified for 19 drug pairs. Approximately 70% of the clinically relevant potential drug–drug interactions had a severity grade of ≥3. Exposure to potential drug–drug interactions was significantly associated with an increase in the number of administrated medications (6–7 medications, p = 0.006; ≥8, p<0.001) and prolonged hospital stays (1–2 weeks, p = 0.035; ≥2, p = 0.049). Moreover, clinically relevant potential drug–drug interactions were significantly associated with ≥8 prescribed drugs (p = 0.019), hospitalization for ≥2 weeks (p = 0.048), and ≥4 complex chronic conditions (p = 0.015). Most potential drug–drug interactions do not cause clinically relevant adverse outcomes in pediatric intensive care units. However, because the reactions that patients experience from clinically relevant potential drug–drug interactions are often very severe, there is a medical need to implement an appropriate monitoring system for potential drug–drug interactions according to the pediatric intensive care unit characteristics.

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Stayer ◽  
Joan Such Lockhart

Background Despite reported challenges encountered by nurses who provide palliative care to children, few researchers have examined this phenomenon from the perspective of nurses who care for children with life-threatening illnesses in pediatric intensive care units. Objectives To describe and interpret the essence of the experiences of nurses in pediatric intensive care units who provide palliative care to children with life-threatening illnesses and the children’s families. Methods A hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted with 12 pediatric intensive care unit nurses in the northeastern United States. Face-to-face interviews and field notes were used to illuminate the experiences. Results Five major themes were detected: journey to death; a lifelong burden; and challenges delivering care, maintaining self, and crossing boundaries. These themes were illuminated by 12 subthemes: the emotional impact of the dying child, the emotional impact of the child’s death, concurrent grieving, creating a peaceful ending, parental burden of care, maintaining hope for the family, pain, unclear communication by physicians, need to hear the voice of the child, remaining respectful of parental wishes, collegial camaraderie and support, and personal support. Conclusion Providing palliative care to children with life-threatening illnesses was complex for the nurses. Findings revealed sometimes challenging intricacies involved in caring for dying children and the children’s families. However, the nurses voiced professional satisfaction in providing palliative care and in support from colleagues. Although the nurses reported collegial camaraderie, future research is needed to identify additional supportive resources that may help staff process and cope with death and dying.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 917
Author(s):  
Javid Maqbool ◽  
Aajaz Ahmad Mir ◽  
Nisar Ahmad Bhat ◽  
Waseem Qadir Moona

Background: Acute kidney injury is a common problem highly associated with hospitalization. Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is associated with severe morbidity and mortality especially in children. Lack of consensus definition has been major limitation in improving outcomes. This study tries to address the need of limited data on pediatric AKI. Detection of the incidence, etiological profile and outcome of AKI is important for the initiation of preventive and therapeutic strategies, identifying patients early to avoid renal replacement therapy.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of tertiary hospital (GMC Srinagar) between January 2015 to December 2016.This is the only prospective study conducted in this hospital, all other studies conducted here and other higher centers were retrospective. Serum creatinine level was estimated on all patients on admission and alternate days till discharge from Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Urine output was recorded. Estimated Creatinine- Clearance (eCrCL) was calculated using Schwartz formula. AKI diagnosis and staging was based on pRIFLE (pediatric RIFLE) criteria. eCrCl criteria was used to diagnose and stage AKI. Maximal stage that the patient progressed during the stay in PICU was assigned the stage for that case.Results: Of total 500 cases, 480 cases met inclusion criteria. Of them, the incidence of AKI was 154 (32.1%). Stage ‘Risk (R)’, ‘Injury (I)’ and ‘Failure (F)’ constituted 93(60.38%), 46 (29.8%) and15 (9.74%) respectively. Maximum AKI occurred in <1 year (30.5%). Infections were commonest etiology. Amongst infections sepsis (30.5%) was most common, followed by acute gastroenteritis (20.7%) and pneumonia (16.9%). Hypotension, nephrotoxic drugs, sepsis, need for mechanical ventilation were significant (p<0.001) risk factors for AKI. Pre-renal causes constituted 68% and intrinsic renal 32%.Conclusions: The incidence of AKI is high among critically ill children. AKI continues to be associated with adverse outcomes. pRIFLE staging system provides early identification and stratification of AKI. Infections are leading etiology of AKI in children. 


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