An 8-year, 2-month-old African-American boy was infected with HIV through vertical transmission. Regular monitoring of the patient's neurodevelopmental status has been conducted as part of his participation in longitudinal research protocols. For the first 51/2 years of life, his neurodevelopmental status was normal, with cognitive functioning as measured by standardized psychometric tools solidly in the average range. Speech and language skills were age-appropriate. Tests of gross and fine motor functioning as well as evaluation of overall neurodevelopmental status suggested normal development. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain was consistently normal. His family reported that adaptive functioning, peer and family relationships, and behavior were all within normal limits. School reports indicated consistently that the patient was performing at age and grade level, with respect to both academic achievement and behavior. Initial concerns regarding the patient's development were expressed by both his family and school at age 6 years, 6 months. These concerns included difficulty with classroom work, decreased attention, word-finding problems, fatigue, staring spells, and loss of strength. His family and school reported a marked loss of skills acquired previously. Results of formal psychological and speech and language evaluation reflected statistically significant drops in test scores from baseline, with both delayed and atypical skills evident. The patient's condition worsened rapidly. Within a few months, he was no longer able to use sentences to communicate. Cognitive testing was attempted, but he was unable to participate because of significant fatigue, limited attention, and inability to communicate verbally. His family described periods of disorientation and confusion, lethargy, and disinterest in age-appropriate activities. He became agitated and overstimulated easily both in small group settings and in crowds. He demonstrated both fine and gross motor impairments. When frustrated, he displayed infantile and autistic-like behavior. MRI with contrast showed diffuse atrophy as well as mild prominence of the ventricles and sulcii compared with baseline assessment. In addition to fatigue and neurologic symptoms, wasting syndrome was diagnosed, with loss of percentiles in both weight and height by age 71/2 years. Low-grade elevation of liver function tests and amylase was noted. Blood cultures for mycobacteria were negative, as were serologic tests for hepatitis. (ABSTRACT TRUN

Background: Patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) often report chronic back pain; however, there is inadequate research on psychological factors associated with pain in this patient population. Pain catastrophizing, a psychological factor that describes a pattern of negative thoughts and feelings about pain, has been associated with poorer responses to medical treatment for pain. The purpose of this study was to report the prevalence of pain catastrophizing in the AIS population and assess its relationship with preoperative and postoperative self-reported outcomes. Methods: In this prospective cohort study of consecutive patients undergoing posterior spinal fusion (PSF) for AIS, patients experiencing clinically relevant pain catastrophizing, defined as a Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Children (PCS) score in the 75th percentile or higher, were compared with patients with normal PCS scores. Preoperative and 2-year postoperative Scoliosis Research Society Society Questionnaire-30 (SRS-30) scores were correlated with the preoperative PCS score. Results: One hundred and eighty-nine patients underwent PSF for AIS, and 20 (10.6%) were considered to be experiencing pain catastrophizing. Despite comparable demographic and radiographic variables, pain catastrophizing was associated with significantly lower preoperative scores than were found in the normal-PCS group in all SRS-30 domains, including pain (2.98 versus 3.95; p < 0.001), appearance (2.98 versus 3.48; p < 0.001), activity (3.51 versus 4.06; p < 0.001), mental health (3.12 versus 4.01; p < 0.001), and total score (3.18 versus 3.84; p < 0.001), except satisfaction (3.72 versus 3.69; p > 0.999). At 2 years, the pain catastrophizing group experienced significant improvement from their preoperative scores in most SRS-30 domains, including a large clinically relevant improvement in pain (from 2.98 preoperatively to 3.84 postoperatively; p < 0.001) and the total score (from 3.18 to 3.85; p < 0.001), but continued to have lower scores than the normal-PCS group for pain (3.84 versus 4.22; p = 0.028) and the total score (3.85 versus 4.15; p = 0.038). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that an SRS-30 pain score of <3.5 has good sensitivity for predicting pain catastrophizing (PCS ≥75th percentile). Conclusions: In this cohort, patients with AIS who exhibited pain catastrophizing experienced significant improvement in self-reported health 2 years after PSF. However, they did not have the same levels of self-reported health as the normal-PCS group. Pain catastrophizing may be identifiable by lower preoperative SRS-30 pain scores. Level of Evidence: Prognostic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Over the past 3 years, the treatment and prognosis of HIV-1 infection have been revolutionized by a better understanding of the pathogenesis of HIV-1 infection, the ability to monitor viral replication and drug resistance in the host, and the availability of potent combination chemotherapy. While most of the studies that have led to this transformation have been done in adults, the results can be applied to the care of children. Data from trials of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in children are now being presented or published. Although the basic principles of antiretroviral therapy of HIV-1 infection do not differ between adults and children, there are important differences in the natural history of the disease and in issues related to medication administration and adherence to therapy. Progression of disease may be more rapid in children and is often very rapid in infants. Administration of medication to infants and children can be difficult, especially when the medication tastes bad. Finally, whereas an adult patient is free to decline therapy, however foolish such a decision may seem to the health-care professional, the failure to administer effective medication to a child for a condition that threatens serious morbidity or death constitutes medical neglect. In this review we will discuss the basic principles underlying pediatric antiretroviral therapy and address the issue of adherence, the major impediment to treatment success.

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