Comprehensive Care for Critically Ill Children: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Dear Colleagues,

The management of pediatric critical patients is an extremely difficult task, as a child's physiopathology is quite different from an adult's. If we look at pediatric patients from the newborn period, sometimes premature, and up to the age of 16, or from the weight of a few hundred grams up to one-hundred kilograms, we realize the wide and varied spectrum of pediatric critical patients. Such patients can only be treated in the multidisciplinary team, especially since the pediatric pathology is at least as extensive as that of the adult. In this Special Issue on the multidisciplinary management of critically ill pediatric patient, we include original articles, reviews, and even case reports on these important topics, among various others.

• Managing pediatric multiple injury patients requires a good understanding of the distinct anatomy and pathophysiology of a child compared to those of an adult. Initial evaluation and resuscitation, as well as hospital management, are performed by a multidisciplinary team (including pediatric and trauma surgeons, plastic surgeons, intensive care physicians, radiologists, and psychologists).
• Pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates, but, until recently, no pediatric-specific diagnostic and management criteria existed. These children require ventilator support in intensive care units, and the treatment team will include a pediatrician, an intensive care doctor, a radiologist, and sometimes a thoracic surgeon and an infectious disease doctor.
• Congenital malformations comprise a wide and fascinating field, often associated with prematurity and low birth weights. Long-term hospitalization in neonatal intensive care units is an additional risk factor for morbidity, favoring the occurrence of neonatal sepsis. It is important to mention the need that these patients require treatment in a multidisciplinary team.
• The multimodal and multidisciplinary treatment of malignant tumors in children is another area that deserves special attention. Cancer is a terrifying disease regardless of age, but when it occurs in a child, the psychosocial and ethical implications are all the more profound.

We invite scientists from all pediatric specialties to express their opinion and to showcase their studies performed on pediatric patients with severe conditions.

Dr. Elena Cojocaru
Guest Editor

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• pediatric patient
• neonate
• congenital malformation
• sepsis
• acute respiratory syndrome
• polytrauma
• oncology
• multidisciplinary management