<p>We retrospectively studied the effect of introducing procalcitonin into clinical practice on antibiotic use within a large academic pediatric intensive care unit. In the absence of a standardized algorithm, availability of the procalcitonin assay did not reduce the frequency of antibiotic initiations or the continuation of antibiotics for greater than 72 hours.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>Delayed antimicrobial therapy in sepsis is associated with increased hospital mortality, but the impact of antimicrobial timing on long-term outcomes is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that hourly delays to antimicrobial therapy are associated with 1-year mortality in pediatric severe sepsis.</p>

<p><strong>DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective observational study.</p>

<p><strong>SETTING: </strong>Quaternary academic pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) from February 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013.</p>

<p><strong>PATIENTS: </strong>One hundred sixty patients aged ≤21 years treated for severe sepsis.</p>

<p><strong>INTERVENTIONS: </strong>None.</p>

<p><strong>MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: </strong>We tested the association of hourly delays from sepsis recognition to antimicrobial administration with 1-year mortality using multivariable Cox and logistic regression. Overall 1-year mortality was 24% (39 patients), of whom 46% died after index PICU discharge. Median time from sepsis recognition to antimicrobial therapy was 137 min (IQR 65-287). After adjusting for severity of illness and comorbid conditions, hourly delays up to 3 h were not associated with 1-year mortality. However, increased 1-year mortality was evident in patients who received antimicrobials ≤1 h (aOR 3.8, 95% CI 1.2, 11.7) or &gt;3 h (aOR 3.5, 95% CI 1.3, 9.8) compared with patients who received antimicrobials within 1 to 3 h from sepsis recognition. For the subset of patients who survived index PICU admission, antimicrobial therapy ≤1 h was also associated with increased 1-year mortality (aOR 5.5, 95% CI 1.1, 27.4), while antimicrobial therapy &gt;3 h was not associated with 1-year mortality (aOR 2.2, 95% CI 0.5, 11.0).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Hourly delays to antimicrobial therapy, up to 3 h, were not associated with 1-year mortality in pediatric severe sepsis in this study. The finding that antimicrobial therapy ≤1 h from sepsis recognition was associated with increased 1-year mortality should be regarded as hypothesis-generating for future studies.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To test the hypothesis that resuscitation with balanced fluids (lactated Ringer [LR]) is associated with improved outcomes compared with normal saline (NS) in pediatric sepsis.</p>

<p><strong>STUDY DESIGN: </strong>We performed matched analyses using data from 12 529 patients &lt;18 years of age with severe sepsis/septic shock at 382 US hospitals between 2000 and 2013 to compare outcomes with vs without LR as part of initial resuscitation. Patients receiving LR were matched 1:1 to patients receiving only NS (NS group), including separate matches for any (LR-any group) or exclusive (LR-only group) LR use. Outcomes included 30-day hospital mortality, acute kidney injury, new dialysis, and length of stay.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>The LR-any group was older, received larger crystalloid volumes, and was less likely to have malignancies than the NS group. After matching, mortality was not different between LR-any (7.2%) and NS (7.9%) groups (risk ratio 0.99, 95% CI 0.98, 1.01; P = .20). There were no differences in secondary outcomes except longer hospital length of stay in LR-any group (absolute difference 2.4, 95% CI 1.4, 5.0 days; P &lt; .001). Although LR was preferentially used as adjunctive fluid with large-volume resuscitation or first-line fluid in patients with lower illness severity, outcomes were not different after matching stratified by volume and proportionate LR utilization, including for patients in the LR-only group.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Balanced fluid resuscitation with LR was not associated with improved outcomes compared with NS in pediatric sepsis. Although the current practice of NS resuscitation is justified, selective LR use necessitates a prospective trial to definitively determine comparative effectiveness among crystalloids.</p>