Clinical Trials

The purpose of this study is to compare reintubation rates and outcomes of patients treated with high-flow nasal canula oxygen therapy (HFNC) and patients treated with provider choice of standard care.

The Bashir™ Endovascular Catheter has been designed to administer therapeutic agents in the peripheral vasculature. Because of the unique design of the catheter, with its six expandable infusion limbs, the Bashir™ Endovascular Catheter has the ability to: 1. Create a much larger central channel for blood flow, thereby utilizing the body's own endogenous fibrinolytic agents to lyse the clot, and 2. Greatly enhance the radial dispersion of a catheter-administered thrombolytic agent throughout the thrombus. Expansion of the multiple arms of the basket in the infusion catheter causes fissuring of the clot. The net result is that a greater surface area of clot is exposed to both endogenous and exogenously administered lytic agents, thereby promoting clot dissolution.

Ventilated pediatric patients are frequently over-sedated and the majority suffer from delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction that is an independent predictor of increased risk of dying, length of stay, and costs. Universally prescribed sedative medications-the GABA-ergic benzodiazepines-worsen this brain organ dysfunction and independently prolong duration of ventilation and ICU stay, and the available alternative sedation regimen using dexmedetomidine, an alpha-2 agonist, has been shown to be superior to benzodiazepines in adults, and may mechanistically impact outcomes through positive effects on innate immunity, bacterial clearance, apoptosis, cognition and delirium. The mini-MENDS trial will compare dexmedetomidine and midazolam, and determine the best sedative medication to reduce delirium and improve duration of ventilation, and functional, psychiatric, and cognitive recovery in our most vulnerable patients-survivors of pediatric critical illness.