Special considerations in paediatric intensive care

In the UK, children with critical illness are managed almost exclusively in paediatric intensive care units, although initial resuscitation and stabilization commonly occurs in other clinical areas and may involve staff with little or no regular exposure to severely ill children. This article provides a brief overview of the management of paediatric critical illness, with a particular emphasis on highlighting differences between adult and paediatric practice including a discussion of pharmacology and suggested drug doses for different ages. A number of disease processes of particular relevance to children are discussed in depth, including respiratory failure, meningococcal sepsis and the differential diagnosis of the collapsed neonate.