KEY POINTS

1. Critically ill children cared for in pediatric intensive care units have improved outcomes when compared with children treated in intensive care units that do not specialize in the treatment of children.
2. The autonomic nervous system has predominantly a parasympathetic vagal tone at birth and gradually shifts to a sympathetic tone in older children.
3. Because the Frank-Starling mechanism is less effective in the newborn, a greater but not exclusive dependence on heart rate is necessary for maintenance of cardiac output.
4. Improvements in ventilation strategies for children with acute lung injury have led to decreased mortality.
5. Microprocessor technology in ventilators has made volume-preset modes of ventilation possible in babies and small children.
6. A multidisciplinary task force has developed a set of guidelines for the acute medical management of severe traumatic brain injury in infants, children, and adolescents.
7. The leading causes of death in children 1 to 14 years of age are accidents and trauma.
8. Pediatric critical care transport systems not only provide a means of transferring a sick patient to a more appropriate facility but also direct appropriate intensive care monitoring and treatment to the patient before leaving the referring hospital.
9. Mortality from sudden infant death syndrome dropped threefold with institution of the "Back to Sleep" campaign.
10. Pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest is usually manifested initially as respiratory compromise or arrest, followed by secondary cardiac arrest.