Seasonal coronaviruses infections in children: do they always cause mild illness?

BACKGROUND

Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) cause a comprehensive clinic ranging from asymptomatic course to pneumonia. We aimed to describe the HCoV infections in children to determine the clinical status and coinfection effects in a five-year retrospective surveillance study. The primary outcome was admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and the secondary outcome was the need of high oxygen support.

METHODS

Between September 2015 and November 2020, all patients whose reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests were positive were determined and patients with HCoVs were included in the study. Demographical characteristics, underlying chronic diseases, clinical diagnosis, laboratory data, subtypes of HCoVs, radiological findings, treatments, hospitalization, and ICU admission were analyzed.

RESULTS

Of the 2606 children, the overall respiratory tract virus detection rate was 82.4%. Among these, 98 cases were HCoVs positive and of these 80 (81.6%) were under five years of age and most of the patients were admitted to the hospital in spring and 70% were a mixed infection with other respiratory viruses. Since lower respiratory tract infections are more common in HCoV coinfections, a significant difference was found in clinical diagnosis (p < 0.001). The presence of hypoxia (p=0.003) and underlying disease (p=0.004) were found to be significantly more common in patients admitted to the ICU. The presence of hypoxia, infiltration on chest X-ray, and elevated C-reactive protein levels were more frequently determined in patients who received high oxygen support (p=0.001, p=0.036, p=0.004, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical findings may be more severe if HCoVs, which generally cause mild respiratory disease, are coinfected with another viral agent.

Increasing suction pressure during endotracheal suctioning increases the volume of suctioned secretions, but not procedure-related complications: A comparative study in open system endotracheal suctioning

OBJECTIVES

To compare the effect of three different suction pressures (80 mmHg, 150 mmHg, 250 mmHg) with the open system suction method in terms of the volume of secretions and complications development in intubated intensive care patients.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY/DESIGN

This study was planned as a prospective, experimental, self-controlled design. The study sample included 47 patients. Data were collected using a data collection and patient follow-up form from patient records.

SETTING

Single adult intensive care unit in a university hospital.

RESULTS

Fifty five percent of the patients were male, 61.7% were older than 65 years and 38.32% had lung infection. The amount of suctioned secretions tended to increase significantly with increasing negative pressure and there was a significant difference between the pressures in terms of the median volume of suctioned secretions (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the suction pressures in terms of oxygen desaturation, hypertension rates (p > 0.05). Tachycardia, bradycardia, hypoxaemia, tracheal mucosal damage or mucosal bleeding were not observed during suctioning with three different suction pressures.

CONCLUSION

It may be assumed that 250 mmHg suction pressure, via compliance with open system suction method related procedures, is being more effective and equally safe for secretion cleaning in comparison to the 80 and 150 mmHg suction pressures.