Pediatric anesthesia & critical care
Variation in electroencephalography and neuroimaging for children receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
Authors' conclusion
In this cohort of children at high risk of neurologic injury, there was significant variation in the approach to EEG and neuroimaging in children on ECMO. Despite the variation in monitoring and imaging, diagnoses of seizures and strokes were similar across hospitals.
Study context
- Population
- Children receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) at US Children's Hospitals participating in Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS), 2016–2021
- Participants
- 8,746 ECMO hospitalizations
- Outcome
- Frequency of EEG, cranial ultrasound, brain CT, MRI and transcranial Doppler during ECMO hospitalizations; hospital variation
Methodological detailsobservational, multicentre administrative database (PHIS), multilevel logistic regression
- Observational
- Multicentre administrative database (PHIS)
- Multilevel logistic regression
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Cranial ultrasound in children <1 year
- 5389/5582
- EEG
- Sixty-two percent
- EEG use 2016 to 2021
- 52-72%
- Computed tomography (CT)
- 37%
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- 36%
- MRI, neonatal
- 46%
- Transcranial Doppler
- 8%
- Transcranial Doppler (TCD) patients cared for at one of five centers
- 77%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Antiseizure medication use and seizure diagnoses
- Antiseizure medication use
- 37%
- Seizure diagnoses
- 20%
- Similar across hospitals, including high and low EEG utilization hospitals
Stroke diagnoses
- Stroke diagnoses, overall
- 16%
- High- vs low-MRI utilization hospitals (similar)
- 15% vs 17%
Original publication
Variation in electroencephalography and neuroimaging for children receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Crit Care. Published 17 January 2023. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →