Clinical profile of hospitalized children provided with urgent assistance from a medical emergency team

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this work was to describe the frequency, characteristics, and outcomes of critical events and hospitalized children requiring medical emergency team review. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted an audit of prospectively collected medical emergency team forms and a retrospective review of medical charts during an 18-month period at a tertiary pediatric hospital in Australia. Critical events were defined as cardiac arrest, endotracheal intubation on the ward, reversal of analgesia or sedation, fluid resuscitation at >/=40 mL/kg, hyponatremia (serum sodium level of /=155 mmol/L), hypoglycemia (glucose level of View full abstract