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Objectives: Assessing outcomes after pediatric critical illness is imperative to evaluate practice and improve recovery of patients and their families. We conducted a scoping review of the literature to identify domains and instruments previously used to evaluate these outcomes. Design: Scoping review. Setting: We queried PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials Registry for studies evaluating pediatric critical care survivors or their families published between 1970 and 2017. We identified articles using key words related to pediatric critical illness and outcome domains. We excluded articles if the majority of patients were greater than 18 years old or less than 1 month old, mortality was the sole outcome, or only instrument psychometrics or procedural outcomes were reported. We used dual review for article selection and data extraction and categorized outcomes by domain (overall health, emotional, physical, cognitive, health-related quality of life, social, family). Subjects: Manuscripts evaluating outcomes after pediatric critical illness. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Of 60,349 citations, 407 articles met inclusion criteria; 87% were published after 2000. Study designs included observational (85%), interventional (7%), qualitative (5%), and mixed methods (3%). Populations most frequently evaluated were traumatic brain injury (n = 96), general pediatric critical illness (n = 87), and congenital heart disease (n = 72). Family members were evaluated in 74 studies (18%). Studies used a median of 2 instruments (interquartile range 1–4 instruments) and evaluated a median of 2 domains (interquartile range 2–3 domains). Social (n = 223), cognitive (n = 183), and overall health (n = 161) domains were most frequently studied. Across studies, 366 unique instruments were used, most frequently the Wechsler and Glasgow Outcome Scales. Individual domains were evaluated using a median of 77 instruments (interquartile range 39–87 instruments). Conclusions: A comprehensive, generalizable understanding of outcomes after pediatric critical illness is limited by heterogeneity in methodology, populations, domains, and instruments. Developing assessment standards may improve understanding of postdischarge outcomes and support development of interventions after pediatric critical illness.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to update our 2015 work in the Second Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference (PALICC-2) guidelines for the diagnosis and management of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS), considering new evidence and topic areas that were not previously addressed. DESIGN: International consensus conference series involving 52 multidisciplinary international content experts in PARDS and four methodology experts from 15 countries, using consensus conference methodology, and implementation science. SETTING: Not applicable. PATIENTS: Patients with or at risk for PARDS. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Eleven subgroups conducted systematic or scoping reviews addressing 11 topic areas: 1) definition, incidence, and epidemiology; 2) pathobiology, severity, and risk stratification; 3) ventilatory support; 4) pulmonary-specific ancillary treatment; 5) nonpulmonary treatment; 6) monitoring; 7) noninvasive respiratory support; 8) extracorporeal support; 9) morbidity and long-term outcomes; 10) clinical informatics and data science; and 11) resource-limited settings. The search included MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL Complete (EBSCOhost) and was updated in March 2022. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology was used to summarize evidence and develop the recommendations, which were discussed and voted on by all PALICC-2 experts. There were 146 recommendations and statements, including: 34 recommendations for clinical practice; 112 consensus-based statements with 18 on PARDS definition, 55 on good practice, seven on policy, and 32 on research. All recommendations and statements had agreement greater than 80%. CONCLUSIONS: PALICC-2 recommendations and consensus-based statements should facilitate the implementation and adherence to the best clinical practice in patients with PARDS. These results will also inform the development of future programs of research that are crucially needed to provide stronger evidence to guide the pediatric critical care teams managing these patients.

Objective: Mortality from pediatric sepsis has steadily declined over the past several decades, however little is known about morbidity among survivors. We aimed to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for failure to recover to baseline health-related quality of life following community-acquired pediatric sepsis. Design: Retrospective cohort study Setting: Seattle Children's Hospital Patients: Children aged 1 month to 21 years admitted to the inpatient wards or intensive care units from 2012-2015 who met 2005 consensus sepsis criteria within 4 hours of hospitalization, and were enrolled in the hospital's Outcomes Assessment Program with baseline, admission, and post-discharge health-related quality of life data available Interventions: None Measurements and Main Results: We assessed health-related quality of life with the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ for pre-admission baseline, admission, and post-discharge (median 31 days) status. We determined associations between patient and illness characteristics with failure to recover within 4.5 points of baseline at follow-up (the minimum clinically significant difference between two scores). Of 790 patients, 23.8% failed to recover to baseline health-related quality of life at follow-up. Factors associated with failure to recover were septic shock, older age, private insurance, complex chronic disease, immune compromise, central nervous system infection or bacteremia, intensive care unit admission, and longer length of stay. On multivariable analysis controlling for time to follow-up, failure to recover was independently