Successful Treatment of Postneurosurgical Ventriculitis Caused by Extensively Drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in a Child: Case Report

Introduction: The incidence of postneurosurgical Acinetobacter baumannii ventriculitis/meningitis, primarily due to drug-resistant strains, has increased considerably in recent years. However, limited therapeutic options are available because most antibiotics poorly penetrate the blood-brain barrier, especially in pediatric patients. Case Presentation: A five-year-old boy developed ventriculitis due to extensively drug-resistant A. baumannii (XDRAB) after bilateral frontal external ventricular drainage for spontaneous intraventricular hemorrhage. The boy was safely and successfully treated with intraventricular (IVT)/intrathecal (ITH) polymyxin B together with intravenous tigecycline plus cefoperazone/sulbactam. Conclusions: In the present case, postneurosurgical XDRAB ventriculitis was closely associated with intraventricular hemorrhage and the placement of external ventricular drainage. IVT/ITH polymyxin B combined with intravenous tigecycline and cefoperazone sulbactam could be a therapeutic option against XDRAB ventriculitis in children.

Transient ventriculoperitoneal shunt malfunction in a pediatric patient: An illustrative case

Background: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS), the mainstay of the treatment for hydrocephalus, is associated with relatively high revision rates. Transient hydrocephalus due to intermittent VPS obstruction should be recognized as a cause of VPS malfunction. While transient VPS dysfunction is well-recognized complication, there is a relative paucity of well-documented cases in the literature. Case Description: We present the case of a 4-year-old boy with a history of vascular malformation and hydrocephalus secondary to intraventricular hemorrhage. The patient presented with transient, self-resolving hydrocephalus (without intervention), as documented by clinical and radiological findings. Conclusion: Transient hydrocephalus due to intermittent VPS dysfunction in children is a rare entity, but it should be suspected in certain patients with VPS presenting with transient or self-improving symptoms.

Lateral Kangaroo Care in Hemodynamic Stability of Extremely Preterm Infants: Protocol Study for a Non-Inferiority Randomized Controlled Trial CANGULAT

Introduction: This study aims to assess the efficacy of the modified kangaroo care lateral position on the thermal stability of preterm neonates versus conventional kangaroo care prone position. Material and methods: A non-inferiority randomized parallel clinical trial. Kangaroo care will be performed in a lateral position for the experimental group and in a prone position for the control group preterm. The study will take place at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a University Hospital. The participants will be extremely premature infants (under 28 weeks of gestational age) along the first five days of life, hemodynamically stable, with mother or father willing to do kangaroo care and give their written consent to participate in the study. The sample size calculated was 35 participants in each group. When the premature infant is hemodynamically stable and one of the parents stays in the NICU, the patient will be randomized into two groups: an experimental group or a control group. The primary outcome is premature infant axillary temperature. Neonatal pain level and intraventricular hemorrhage are secondary outcomes. Discussion: There is no scientific evidence on modified kangaroo care lateral position. Furthermore, there is little evidence of increased intraventricular hemorrhage association with the lateral head position necessary in conventional or prone kangaroo care in extremely premature newborns. Kangaroo care is a priority intervention in neonatal units increasing the time of use more and more, making postural changes necessary to optimize comfort and minimize risks with kangaroo care lateral position as an alternative to conventional prone position kangaroo care. Meanwhile, it is essential to ensure that the conventional kangaroo care prone position, which requires the head to lay sideways, is a safe position in terms of preventing intraventricular hemorrhage in the first five days of life of children under 28 weeks of gestational age. Trial registration at clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03990116.

Mathematical modeling of the hematocrit influence on cerebral blood flow in preterm infants

Premature birth is one of the most important factors increasing the risk for brain damage in newborns. Development of an intraventricular hemorrhage in the immature brain is often triggered by fluctuations of cerebral blood flow (CBF). Therefore, monitoring of CBF becomes an important task in clinical care of preterm infants. Mathematical modeling of CBF can be a complementary tool in addition to diagnostic tools in clinical practice and research. The purpose of the present study is an enhancement of the previously developed mathematical model for CBF by a detailed description of apparent blood viscosity and vessel resistance, accounting for inhomogeneous hematocrit distribution in multiscale blood vessel architectures. The enhanced model is applied to our medical database retrospectively collected from the 254 preterm infants with a gestational age of 23–30 weeks. It is shown that by including clinically measured hematocrit in the mathematical model, apparent blood viscosity, vessel resistance, and hence the CBF are strongly affected. Thus, a statistically significant decrease in hematocrit values observed in the group of preterm infants with intraventricular hemorrhage resulted in a statistically significant increase in calculated CBF values.

SAFETY AND QUALITY OF INTRAVENOUS LIPIDS FOR NEWBORNS: EFFECTS ON CRITICAL DISEASES AND METABOLIC DISORDERS (PART II)

Premature birth and its complications cause stress in newborns, which restrains their physical growth for several weeks after birth and is associated with chronic morbidity and neurological disability in the future. Preterm infants face such difficulties as respiratory distress, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal dysfunction and very low birth weight. Most complications in newborns are associated with oxidative stress that develops during the early period of growth. The formation of free radicals entails oxidative damage to many organs and systems of the body and is the main factor responsible for the development of typical diseases of preterm infants, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia, patent ductus arteriosus, retinopathy of prematurity, necrotizing enterocolitis, intraventricular hemorrhage, and respiratory distress syndrome. Premature infants depend on adequate early parenteral nutrition, which not only guarantees they will survive but also ensures positive health outcomes later in life. Early use of intravenous lipids helps to prevent essential fatty acid deficiencies, provides energy and substrates for cell membrane synthesis, which are important for the growth and development of infants with very low and extremely low birth weight. This publication represents data on the effect of intravenous lipids on critical conditions and metabolic disorders in newborns. Literature sources are analyzed and the existing evidence of the possible influence of lipid emulsions on critical diseases in newborns is presented: intraventricular hemorrhage; necrotizing enterocolitis, patent ductus arteriosus and thrombocytopenia; glucose metabolism (hypo- and hyperglycemia); hyperbilirubinemia and chronic liver damage. The literature review is aimed at finding optimal strategies for the use of lipid emulsions in intensive care of newborns to improve the quality of care for premature infants. The purpose of this work is to analyze the results of published studies and systematize data on the feasibility and safety of lipid emulsions used in newborns with critical diseases of the perinatal period.

Transfer Learning of The ResNet-18 and DenseNet-121 Model Used to Diagnose Intracranial Hemorrhage in CT Scanning

Objective: To verify the ability of the deep learning model in identifying five subtypes and normal images in noncontrast enhancement CT of intracranial hemorrhage. Method: A total of 351 patients (39 patients in the normal group, 312 patients in the intracranial hemorrhage group) performed with intracranial hemorrhage noncontrast enhanced CT were selected, with 2768 images in total (514 images for the normal group, 398 images for the epidural hemorrhage group, 501 images for the subdural hemorrhage group, 497 images for the intraventricular hemorrhage group, 415 images for the cerebral parenchymal hemorrhage group, and 443 images for the subarachnoid hemorrhage group). Based on the diagnostic reports of two radiologists with more than 10 years of experience, the ResNet-18 and DenseNet-121 deep learning models were selected. Transfer learning was used. 80% of the data was used for training models, 10% was used for validating model performance against overfitting, and the last 10% was used for the final evaluation of the model. Assessment indicators included accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC values. Results: The overall accuracy of ResNet-18 and DenseNet-121 models were 89.64% and 82.5%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of identifying five subtypes and normal images were above 0.80. The sensitivity of DenseNet-121 model to recognize intraventricular hemorrhage and cerebral parenchymal hemorrhage was lower than 0.80, 0.73, and 0.76 respectively. The AUC values of the two deep learning models were above 0.9. Conclusion: The deep learning model can accurately identify the five subtypes of intracranial hemorrhage and normal images, and it can be used as a new tool for clinical diagnosis in the future.