News

Adolescents not only present the pediatric community with unique health problems, but are part of an often ignored age group, according to the Society of Adolescent Medicine.

A comatose teenager and a differential diagnosis of hyperammonemia eventually points to a genetic origin for the condition.

With any outdoor physical activity comes the risk of injury. This article provides an overview of running injuries specific to the pediatric population, such as strains and fractures, as well as prevention methods.

Many painful and stressful procedures are performed in neonatal intensive care units in Paris, France, and most of them are not accompanied by analgesia, researchers report in the July 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Population-based initiatives aimed at preventing excess weight gain complement clinical preventive strategies and treatment for obese people, according to an article published online June 30 in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Overweight children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are more likely to have metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk factors than overweight children without NAFLD, according to research published online June 30 in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Babies who weigh more than 10 pounds at birth are twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis as adults compared to babies with an average birthweight, reported researchers in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

The enterocele was partially resected in an attempt to maximize bowel length, but the intestinal tracts could not be completely separated. Postoperatively, both infants remained hypoxemic and became increasingly septic despite antibiotic therapy and critical life support. Support was ultimately withdrawn on the 65th day of life on parental request.

Two weeks before admission, he had visited the emergency department (ED) because of the headache. Migraine was diagnosed and ibuprofen had been prescribed. The headache persisted despite NSAID therapy, and the patient returned to the ED 2 days later. At that time, he had upper respiratory tract symptoms and a temperature of 39.4C (102.9F). CT scans of the head without contrast demonstrated pansinusitis with complete opacification of the frontal sinuses and frontal soft tissue swelling. The patient was admitted and given ampicillin/sulbactam intravenously for 3 days.

Dr Crane and Mr Schoonmaker, who were at the campground, write that an inordinate amount of highway traffic resulting from a local bikers' rally prevented them from transporting the patient to a medical facility. Emergent wound closure had to be performed with available materials. After the wound was flushed, a household cyanoacrylate adhesive, Krazy Glue, was used to close the laceration. To add lateral support and to reduce the risk of wound dehiscence, Dr Crane embedded hair trimmed from the patient's scalp into a second layer of glue. To replicate wound closure tape, the hair was applied perpendicular to the laceration. Azithromycin suspension was available; 1 tsp (5 mL) was given initially followed by 2.5 mL daily for 4 days.

In pre-pubertal schoolchildren in the United Kingdom, sustained physical activity above the government-recommended intensity of three metabolic equivalents of thermogenesis for 60 minutes per day is associated with improved metabolic health without affecting body mass index. But fewer than half of boys and only one in eight girls meet this guideline, according to the results of a study published online June 30 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Increased funding of Medicaid mental health services and expansion of Medicaid's Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program in California resulted in increased delivery of mental health services, especially in rural areas and communities historically receiving low levels of funding, according to study findings published in the June issue of Medical Care.

Incidents of exercise-related sudden cardiac arrest in youths in the United States have generally resulted in poor survival during the past seven years, although a trend toward improved survival has developed recently, researchers report in the June issue of Heart Rhythm.

The 2007-2008 rotavirus season began three months later than usual and has been significantly milder, suggesting that 2006 recommendations for infants to be vaccinated at ages 2 months, 4 months and 6 months with the RotaTeq vaccine may be having an impact, according to an interim report issued June 25 in the early release edition of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Perinatal outcomes are significantly better when women with substance abuse problems receive treatment integrated with prenatal visits, according to research published online June 26 in the Journal of Perinatology.

It is becoming increasingly common for children to be identified with congenital long-QT syndrome because of family screening, and with appropriate therapy, survival is excellent among both probands and non-probands, according to a report published in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.