The Pediatric ICU at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital is currently exploring strategies for fluid resuscitation in critically ill young patients. “We have completed retrospective studies that suggest aggressive fluid resuscitation may have a negative effect on outcomes,” says Vincent Duron, MD, Surgical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. “We have correlated high volume resuscitation with increased ventilator use, ICU length of stay, overall length of stay, and time to a regular diet. The next step is to determine the ideal fluid management strategy.”
The Pediatric ICU provides the highest level of care for infants and children with congenital heart disease, those needing organ transplants, neurological and orthopedic surgery, and trauma victims. “One of our goals is to further develop protocol-based care in the ICU,” adds Dr. Duron.” We are continuing to push the standardization of care of all ICU patients, when possible, as this has been shown to improve outcomes.”
The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, located at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital has 41 licensed beds. The Pediatric Critical Care division oversees a 14 bed Pediatric Cardiovascular ICU and a large general medical-surgical Pediatric ICU, 28 beds are state-of-the-art isolation, family-friendly, glass-enclosed cubicles. A full-time transport system brings patients to the Pediatric ICU from our network hospitals, other hospitals within the tri-state area, and beyond.