The Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine has been selected as one of 12 sites to participate in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) sponsored study, “Transfusion and Organ Dysfunction in Pediatric Septic Shock (TROPICS).” Led by Dr. Jennifer Muszynski at Nationwide Children's Hospital, TROPICS seeks to build decision support tools that can be used in future clinical trials to identify when children with septic shock should or should not be transfused with RBCs. Dr. Marianne Nellis, associate professor of pediatrics and director of fellows’ research in pediatrics, will lead the study at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Worldwide, nearly 3 million children die each year from sepsis. Red blood cells (RBC) are transfused in ~50% of children with septic shock, with the intent to enhance oxygen delivery, help resolve shock, and prevent organ dysfunction. However, RBC transfusion has repeatedly been associated with adverse outcomes in critical illness, suggesting harm. For most children with septic shock, we lack data to identify who should or should not be transfused.
The study, conducted in the NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, will inform the design and evaluation of precision-medicine based transfusion strategies to improve outcomes in these extremely ill infants and children with septic shock.