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Monthly Archives :

January 2020

Dentists Heeded FDA Warning on Codeine
 Dentists Heeded FDA Warning on Codeine 1024 683 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD
open bottle of pills

An FDA black box warning directed at ENT doctors performing tonsil and adenoid surgeries also affected prescribing patterns by dentists. Codeine, an opioid analgesic, was popular in pediatrics because it was thought to be a safe alternative to morphine. However, in recent years, the drug has been found to have variability in therapeutic doses, with…

What is the Association Between Kidney Injury and Fluid Balance in Premature Newborns?
 What is the Association Between Kidney Injury and Fluid Balance in Premature Newborns? 1024 575 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD
Nurse caring for infant in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

A positive fluid balance is associated with acute kidney injury and worse outcomes in a new study of premature infants. According to new research, there is an association between fluid balance and outcomes in preterm newborns, with a negative fluid balance during the first week of life emerging as a potential therapeutic target. Premature infants…

Kidney Biopsy Analysis Reveals High Risk for Disease in Patients With Sickle Cell Disease
 Kidney Biopsy Analysis Reveals High Risk for Disease in Patients With Sickle Cell Disease 1024 732 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Patients with SCD are at high risk for significant kidney disease. A retrospective study of biopsy findings from the Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium shows just how high. Kidney damage is a progressive complication of sickle cell disease (SCD), sometimes eventually leading to kidney failure. As the life expectancy of individuals with SCD has improved, the…

Lung Transplant Index Enhances Identification of Preventable Harms in Adolescents and Young Adults
 Lung Transplant Index Enhances Identification of Preventable Harms in Adolescents and Young Adults 150 150 Lauren Dembeck
By: Lauren Dembeck

A recent Quality Improvement (QI) Initiative at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has reduced the percent of missed opportunities to address preventable harms in a population of adolescent and young adult patients who underwent lung transplant at the hospital. The study is published in Pediatric Quality and Safety. “We tried to focus on all issues, all body systems,…

Regional Anesthesia Dramatically Reduces Opioid Use After Limb Lengthening and Reconstructive Surgeries
 Regional Anesthesia Dramatically Reduces Opioid Use After Limb Lengthening and Reconstructive Surgeries 1024 584 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

The peripheral catheter approach to postoperative pain management may also shorten length of stay. When clinicians in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital first proposed the use of regional anesthesia for the patients of Christopher Iobst, MD, he was resistant to the idea. As an orthopedic surgeon specializing in limb lengthening and…

Answers to Burning Questions About Pediatric Urinary Tract Infections
 Answers to Burning Questions About Pediatric Urinary Tract Infections 1024 683 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Nationwide Children’s urologists and nephrologists recently co-hosted a Twitter chat for primary care providers, answering common questions about pediatric urinary tract infections (UTIs). Below is a summary of the questions and answers, adapted for brevity and clarity. Q: What causes UTIs in children? A: UTIs are typically caused by uropathogenic E. coli bacteria that invade the urinary…

Could Restoring CD4+ T Cell Immunity Help Control Hepatitis C Infection?
 Could Restoring CD4+ T Cell Immunity Help Control Hepatitis C Infection? 1024 683 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Following childbirth, some women with chronic infection experienced a recovery of HCV-specific CD4+ T cells and a reduction in viral replication. In chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infections, CD4+ T cells that recognize the virus have been so hard to detect, some researchers thought they may be completely depleted. But research led by investigators at Nationwide Children’s…

Using an Evidence-Based Parenting Program to Engage a Community
 Using an Evidence-Based Parenting Program to Engage a Community 1024 575 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Given the similar size and distribution of Asian and Hispanic populations in central Ohio, Michael Flores, PhD, clinical team coordinator in the Big Lots Behavioral Health Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, was puzzled about why significantly fewer Asian families were seeking mental and behavioral health services at Nationwide Children’s. Roughly 4.9% of the Columbus population…

From Clinician Ideas to Commercially-Available Clinical Devices
 From Clinician Ideas to Commercially-Available Clinical Devices 150 150 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

Pressure wounds were a common complication following a tracheostomy, often resulting in advanced-stage wounds, national studies showed. Nationwide Children’s Hospital was no different but Kris Jatana, MD, and Charles Elmaraghy, MD, surgeons in the Department of Otolaryngology, knew they could improve these outcomes. Brendan Boyle, MD, and Alex Green, DO, were fellows in the Division…

Asymptomatic Infants With Congenital Cytomegalovirus May Still Have Detectable, Significant Abnormalities
 Asymptomatic Infants With Congenital Cytomegalovirus May Still Have Detectable, Significant Abnormalities 1024 575 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
Color photo of Black father holding infant on shoulder in front of nursery background with clouds on the wall

More than half of high-risk CMV-positive newborns may have abnormalities not detected by a physical exam alone. A study in 34 infants with a normal physical exam despite a positive diagnosis of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) — a viral infection that can lead to neurodevelopmental delays and permanent hearing loss — found that in more than…

Targeting Alternative RNA Splicing in Pediatric Cancers
 Targeting Alternative RNA Splicing in Pediatric Cancers 150 150 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

Targeting alternative RNA splicing in tumor cells could lead to cancer therapies. RNA splicing, the enzymatic process of removing segments of premature RNA to produce mature RNA, is a key regulator of gene expression. Recent studies have identified variations in the transcriptomes of tumors due to alternative splicing changes, in addition to mutations in splicing…

Tackling Physician Burnout and Moral Injury
 Tackling Physician Burnout and Moral Injury 150 150 Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES
By: Katie Brind'Amour, PhD, MS, CHES

Across the United States, burnout and suicide rates for physicians have reached record highs, claiming the life of a doctor a day. What can be done to protect and improve the wellbeing of the people who care for everyone else? Most doctors enter their profession knowing that it is demanding, but believing that it is…

Reducing Asthma-Related Emergency Department Visits
 Reducing Asthma-Related Emergency Department Visits 480 320 Abbie Miller
By: Abbie Miller

Through serial interventions and teamwork, the initiative reduced asthma-related ED utilization rates by nearly 4% per year at a time when national rates were rising. Numerous studies have demonstrated that quality improvement (QI) methodologies improve asthma outcomes. However, moving that success from individual patients to a large population is challenging. In a recent study published…

For Some Fetuses With HLHS, One Follow-up Echocardiogram May Be Enough
 For Some Fetuses With HLHS, One Follow-up Echocardiogram May Be Enough 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

“Not every patient with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, also known as HLHS, is the same: there appears to be a high-risk group that has significant atrioventricular valve regurgitation, atrial septal restriction or other concerns; and a low-risk group that, on their first scan, has none of these comorbidities of the heart,” says Bernadette Richards, FASE,…

What Are Long-Term Outcomes for a Child With Bladder Exstrophy?
 What Are Long-Term Outcomes for a Child With Bladder Exstrophy? 1024 575 Kevin Mayhood
By: Kevin Mayhood

A study from the Pediatric Urology Midwest Alliance (PUMA) suggests the condition requires lifelong management for most children with bladder exstrophy. Half of infants with classic bladder exstrophy (BE) undergo bladder augmentation or diversion by age 10 and the percentage increases with age, a 36-year retrospective study from five Midwestern children’s hospitals shows. Whether they…

Link Found Between Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection and Asthma
 Link Found Between Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection and Asthma 800 533 Mary Bates, PhD
By: Mary Bates, PhD

RSV infection early in life increases risk of subsequent wheezing or asthma. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants all over the world. It can lead to serious acute infections, and new research from Nationwide Children’s shows RSV infection can also have long-term health consequences. In a new study, researchers…