Related Experiment Videos
[Long time hospitalization in pediatric surgical intensive care units]
J Bientz1, G Hartmann, C Heintz
1Service d'anesthésie, Hôpital de Hautepierre, Strasbourg.
Insights
A small group of children require long-term intensive care unit (ICU) stays due to congenital malformations or severe injuries. The study questions if ICUs adequately support these pediatric patients
Area of Science:
- Pediatric critical care medicine
- Neonatology
- Pediatric surgery
Context:
- The majority of children in intensive care units (ICUs) are discharged within days.
- A distinct subgroup requires prolonged hospitalization, ranging from months to several years.
- This prolonged stay presents unique challenges for both patients and medical teams.
Purpose:
- To examine the distinct needs of two patient groups requiring extended ICU care: newborns with congenital malformations and children with severe acquired injuries.
- To evaluate the suitability of current hospital structures, specifically ICUs, in addressing the complex medical, developmental, and psychosocial requirements of children undergoing very long-term hospitalization.
Summary:
- Identifies two primary groups necessitating extended ICU stays: neonates with congenital issues (e.g., short bowel syndrome) requiring long-term parenteral nutrition, and older children with severe sequelae from accidents (e.g., neurological deficits, burns).
- Highlights the multifaceted challenges associated with prolonged pediatric ICU care, including family integration, infant development (psychomotor, affective), and the educational and social needs of older children.
- Poses critical questions regarding the capacity of ICU environments to meet the comprehensive care demands for these vulnerable pediatric populations over extended periods.
Impact:
- Informs the development of specialized pediatric critical care protocols for long-term hospitalization.
- Highlights the need for integrated family-centered care models within ICUs.
- Underscores the importance of addressing developmental and psychosocial needs alongside medical treatment in pediatric critical care.
Abstract:
If the great majority of children stay in intensive care unit only for few days, a small group of patients stay for a long period of time, varying from 3 months to five years or even more. The small group include two very different entities. On the one hand, newborns with a congenital malformation, often digestive e.a. with a short small intestine, need a long time parenteral nutrition. In such cases, the family disturbance, the opening of the unit to the parents, the awakening of the infant, his psychomotor and affective attainments are as many problems for the whole medical team. On the other hand, children severely injured in accidents, that occurred on public thoroughfares or in domestic house holds, most of the time are older than 3 years. These children may present important central neurologic sequelae, or other major sequelae (multiple trauma, burn injuries, hypoxic cervical spinal cord injury). Their education, activities, games, and family relations must be actively supported. Does the hospital structure, and particularly the intensive care unit, meet such requirements in very long time hospitalization?