Sepsis kills children. It is a leading cause of pediatric death, with an in-hospital mortality of 5-20% in the United States [1, 2]. Early recognition and treatment improve outcomes, but predicting which emergency department (ED) patients will develop sepsis remains a major clinical challenge. Current sepsis screening tools are designed primarily to identify children who […]
For decades, the teaching in pediatric emergency medicine has been consistent: “Young febrile infants (0-28 days) with fevers get a full sepsis workup.” This traditionally means blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures, followed by admission and antibiotics. The fear of missing bacterial meningitis—a devastating infection—has driven this aggressive approach. But is a lumbar puncture […]
Introduction When a child with sickle cell disease (SCD) arrives at the Emergency Department with a pain crisis, families understandably want to know: how long until we can go home? The answer, it turns out, may depend less on patient characteristics and more on the hospital itself and other characteristics like history of chronic pain […]
Introduction We know how to evaluate febrile infants 0-60 days thanks to prior PECARN studies [1] and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations [2], which identify infants who are at low risk (<1% risk of invasive bacterial infections). But what about the 61-90 days old febrile infant!? Invasive bacterial infections (bacteremia and/or bacterial meningitis) […]
Introduction Acute gastroenteritis affects millions of children in the U.S. every year, leading to emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Probiotics, particularly Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), have been commonly used as a treatment, but evidence supporting their effectiveness has been limited [1-3]. A new study conducted by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) aimed […]
Introduction Children with sickle cell anemia often present to the emergency department with vaso-occlusive pain episodes (VOE), also referred to as pain crisis. In these patients, pain develops when red blood cells become sickle shaped, causing them to not be able to pass through the smaller blood vessels in joints and bones. This leads to severe […]
