UMEM Educational Pearls - Pediatrics

• Significant morbidity and mortality has been consistently documented in pediatric sickle cell patients due to overwhelming sepsis from encapsulated organisms, especially S. pneumoniae
• All pediatric sickle cell patients presenting with fevers greater than 101.5F (38.6C) should receive antibiotics within 60 minutes of triage.
• Historically, and still in many pediatric sickle cell centers, ceftriaxone (75mg/kg/dose) is administered
• However, reported cases of deadly intravascular hemolysis in pediatric sickle cell patients whom had recieved multiple doses of ceftriaxone has led to new recommendations for antibiotic coverage to include cefuroxime (200mg/kg/day) or ampicillin/sulbactam (200mg/kg/day)

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• High or normal BP
• Normal heart rate after ROSC
• Sinus rhythm after ROSC
• Urine output >1 ml/kg/hr
• Noncyanotic skin color
• GCS >7 on arrival

Question

Case: A 3 year 9 month female presents with fever to 39.4 C and intermittent abdominal pain worsening over 2 days.  The patient had been tolerating food and had no change in her bowel habits.  Based on the imaging below, what is your diagnosis and treatment?

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How many times have you been frustrated in the peds ED when you have a child with a URI that has a significant night time cough and you feel like you have nothing to offer them for symptom control?  The parent is frustrated because the child is not sleeping which means they are not sleeping and they are looking at you for help.  We all know that OTC cough and cold medications are not helpful and may be harmful in children <2 yrs old and should be used with caution in children <6 yrs old.  So what can you do?  You can recommend a course of HONEY at night.  Of course this does not apply to children < 1 yr who are at increased risk of botulism.  A recent double-blind placebo-controlled trial published in Pediatrics in 2012 demonstrated reduced night time cough and subjective improved sleep quality in children age 1-5 who were given honey compared to placebo.  This study supports previous less rigorous publications that found honey was an effective remedy on cough in children.  Mechanism for honey's beneficial effect on cough is unknown but possibly related to close anatomic relationship between sensory nerve fibers that initiate cough and gustatory nerve fibers that taste sweetness.  Of note, a recently published survey in Pediatric Emergency Care revealed that 2/3 of parents were unaware of the FDA guidelines regarding OTC cough and cold remedies in children!  After you recommend HONEY for night time cough, take an extra minute and educate your parents about the potential dangers of cough and cold medicines in small children!

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Pediatric patients with an isolated skull fracture and normal neurological exam have a low risk of neurosurgical intervention and outpatient follow up may be appropriate (assuming no suspicion of abuse and a reliable family).  In a study published in 2011, a retrospective review over a 5 year period at a level 1 trauma center showed that 1 out of 171 admitted patients with isolated skull fractures developed vomiting.  This patient had a follow up CT showing a small extra-axial hematoma that did not require intervention.  58 patients were discharged from the ED within 4 hours.

You can also check out another recent article published in Annals of Emergency Medicine on the same topic this month!

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Should you be concerned about erythema around the umbilical stump?!

Yes!

Often parents will bring their neonate to the ED with concerns about the umbilical cord and it is just a simple granuloma or normal detachment. But is it omphalitis???

Omphalitis incidence is low in developed countries, but that means it’s easier, and no less catastrophic, to miss!

Omphalitis is a superficial cellulitis of the umbilical cord, but 10-16% progress to necrotizing fasciitis of the abdominal wall!!!

Always ADMIT and consider consulting surgery early in case of rapid progression…

Most often polymicrobial and should be treated with:

• Anti-staphylococcal PCN,  Vanc, & an Aminoglycoside
• Also consider adding Metronidazole or Clindamycin for anaerobic coverage
• Anti-pseudomonal coverage if toxic

Should notice improvement within 12-24 hours, so if don’t or begin to observe

• Fever
• Induration
• Peau d’orange tisse
• Tenderness
• Violaceous discoloration
• Crepitace
• Increased erythema
• Systemic signs of toxicity/shock

CONSULT SURERY for concern of necrotizing fasciitis which has a mortality rate of close to 60%!!!

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We have learned how to diagnose compartment syndrome in adults, but how do you determine the early warning signs in a nonverbal or even frightened child?  

Rising compartment pressures are related to increasing anxiety and agitation in children.  A Boston study in 2001 showed that increasing pain medication requirements were detected 7 hours earlier than a vascular exam change.  90% of the patients with compartment syndrome in this study reported pain, but only 70% had another ‘P” (pallor, parasthesia, paralysis or pulselessness).

This has led to the proposal of the 3 “A”s for early identification of compartment syndrome in children: increasing anxiety, agitation and analgesia requirement.

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A facial laceration on a child can present a unique challenge which is not limited to the initial visit.  The traditional teaching has been to use nonabsorbable sutures and have the patient return in 5 days for removal.  A recent study compared the cosmetic outcome of linear facial lacerations 1 to 5 cm that were closed with either Ethicon fast absorbing surgical gut or monocryl nonabsorbable sutures.  Patients were randomized and returned to the ED in 4-7 days and 3-4 months. Scars were assessed by caregivers and blinded physicians.  Results showed that caregivers preferred absorbable sutures.  Visual analog scores as given by caregivers were not statistically different between the 2 groups at the 3 month mark.  The blinded physicians did give better cosmetic outcome scores to the absorbable suture group which differs from previous studies that had shown equivocal results.  Of note, all absorbable sutures were no longer visible after 14 days.

Bottom line:  Try absorbable sutures the next time you are suturing a child and the parents may be happier and you will not have to try and take out your sutures from a squirming, screaming child.

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Clinically important traumatic brain injuries are rare in children.  The PECARN study provides decision rules for when to avoid unnecessarily obtaining a CT for children who have suffered head trauma.

For children < 2 years old: <0.02% risk of clinically important TBI

• Normal mental status
• No scalp hematoma, except frontal
• Loss of consciousness < 5 seconds
• No palpalble skull fracture
• Normal behavior
• Nonsevere mechanism (fall < 3ft, pedestrian struck, rollover MVC)

For children > 2 years old: <0.05% risk of clinically important TBI

• Normal mental status
• No signs of basilar skull fracture
• No loss of consciousness
• No vomiting
• No severe headache
• Nonsever mechanism (fall < 5ft, pedestrian struck, rollover MVC)

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Cringing at the thought of sewing up another screaming 2 year old?

Consider intranasal fentanyl.

Who: Young, otherwise healthy pediatric patients undergoing minor procedures (laceration repair, fracture reduction/splinting, etc...)

What: Fentanyl (2mcg/kg)

When: 5 minutes pre-procedure

Where: Intranasal

Why: More effective than PO, less invasive than IV while being equally efficacious.

How: Use an atomizer, splitting the dose between each nostril.

Lactate is commonly used in the adult ED when evaluating septic patients, but there is a lack of literature validating its use in the pediatric ED.  Pediatric studies have suggested that in the ICU population, elevated lactate is a predictor of mortality and may be the earliest marker of death.
 
A retrospective chart review over a 1 year period showed that one elevated serum lactate correlated with increased pulse, respiratory rate, white blood cell count and platelets.  Serum lactate had a negative correlation with BUN, serum bicarbinate and age.  Elevated lactate levels were higher for admitted patients. However, the mean serum lacate level was not statistically different between those diagnosed with sepsis and those that were not.
 
The study included 289 patients less then 18 years who had both blood cultures and lactate drawn.  This community hospital had a sepsis protocol in place that automatically ordered a lactate with blood cultures.  Only previously healthy children were included.
 
The study is limited by its small sample size and overall low lactate levels.  Despite having a protocol in place, only 39% of patients who had blood cultures drawn had lactate levels available for analysis.  The mean serum lacate in this study was 2.04 mM indicating that the study population may not have been sick enough to determine mortality implications.  There were no serial measurements.

 
Bottom line:  Consider measuring serum lacate in your pediatric patient with suspected sepsis.  Pediatric ICU literature does suggest that an serum lactate as low as 3mM is associated with an increased mortality in the ICU.

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Risk stratisfication score introducted by Maden Samuel in 2002.

The Pediatric Appendicitis Score had a sensitivity of 1, speciificity of 0.92, positive predictive value of 0.96, and negative predictive value of 0.99

Signs:

• Right lower quadrant tenderness = 2 points
• Cough/Percussion/Hop RLQ tenderness = 1 point
• Pyrexia = 1 point

Symptoms:

• RLQ migration of pain = 1 point
• Anorexia = 1 point
• Nausea/Vomiting = 1 point

Laboratory Values:

• Leukocytosis = 2 points
• Polymorphonuclear neutrophiia = 1 point

Scores of 4 or less are least likely to have acute appendicitis, while scores of 8 or more are most likely.

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• enterovirus which lives in digestive tract, and is highly contagious
• outbreaks worse in summer and fall, but is a self-limited illness
• causes mild flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle aches, sore throat. with fever usually lasting less than 3 days
• hand, foot, and mouth disease: syndrome of painful blisters in oropharynx and plams of hands and soles of feet
• herpangina: painful blisters in oropharynx, usually posterior in location
• hemorrhagic conjunctivitis: eye pain with injected conjunctivia
• serious complications include: viral meningitis and encephalitis, myocarditis, and secondary bacterial infections

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Infant lumbar puncture is often difficut and may require repeated attempts.  The traditional body positioning is lateral decubitus.  Previous studies have examined the saftey of having the patient in a sitting position, and neonatal studies have suggested that the subarachnoid space increases in size as the patient is moved to the seated position.  A study by Lo et al published last month looked to see if the same held true in infants.
 
50 healthy infants less then 4 months old had the subarachnoid space measured by ultrasound between L3-L4 in 3 positions: lateral decubitus, 45 degree tilt and sitting upright.
 
This study found that the size of the subarachnoid space did not differ significantly between the 3 positions.  Authors postulated that a reason for increase sitting LP success rate that had been reported in anestesia literature with tilt position could be due to other factors such as increased CSF pressure, intraspinous space widening or improved landmark identification.

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Ultrasound findings of appendicitis

• noncompressible appendix with an outer diameter in any portion > 6mm
• appendicolith
• hyperechoic periappendiceal fat
• loss of echogenic submucosal layer
• increased blood flow of the appendix on color Doppler ultrasound scanning
• periappendiceal collections seen in the absence of a visualized abnormal appendix

Ultrasound images:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9jKM6x52nk
http://sonocloud.org/watch_video.php?v=MWHM3D7KD25H
http://sonocloud.org/watch_video.php?v=54862AYWGHGA

• diarrhea lasting less than 14 days
• in children, almost all diarrhea is due to an infectious agent
• most etiologies are self-limited and do not need further evaluation except in the following conditions:

1. infants < 2 months of age
2. gross blood in stool
3. WBC's on microscopic exam of stool
4. toxic-appearance
5. immunocompromised child
6. diarrhea developing while an inpatient

• therapy is aimed at oral rehydration and providing nutrional needs
• ORT is best with commerical formulations specific for this as most other clear liquids (juice, sodas) are hypertonic and have excess glucose resulting in ongoing diarrhea-like stools
• after rehydration, resume the child's normal diet. 

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Acute ischemic stroke occurs in 3.3/100,000 children per year.  Up to 30% of these are caused by varicella.  This can be diagnosed if the patient has had varicella infection within the past 12 months, has a unilateral stenosis of a great vessel, and has a positive PCR or IgG from the CSF.

Treatment includes anticoagulation, acyclovir for at least 7 days and steroids for 3-5 days.

Outcome is normally good and spontaneous improvement can be seen.

Inflammation of other arteries, including other areas of the brain, can also be seen.  Treatment options for this can include high dose glucocorticoids and possibly immunosuppresive agents.

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An overweight 5 year old male presents with acute onset abdominal pain that localizes to the right lower quadrant. What are some causes of a limited or nondiagnostic ultrasound study in children?

Acute appendicitis is a time sensitive diagnosis. Ultrasound is frequently used as the initial diagnostic imaging in children. There are several reasons why the appendix may not be visualized, including retro-cecal location, normal appendix, perforation, and inflammation around the distal tip. An additional clinical predictor associated with poor or inconclusive ultrasound results in appendicitis is increased BMI (body mass index).

A study examining 263 pediatric patients found when BMI > 85th percentile and clinical probability of appendicitis was <50%, 58% of ultrasounds were nondiagnostic. Children with a BMI <85th percentile and clinical probability of appendicitis was <50%, had nondiagonstic scans 42% of the time. These trends were also mimicked in the patients with a higher clinical probability of appendicitis. In the child with a nondiagnostic ultrasound, options include observation and repeat ultrasound scan or CT scan, both of which have associated risks.