The practice of neurocritical care for children with injured or vulnerable brains entails clinical assessment, a range of monitoring methods within the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and the follow-up of children's long-term neurodevelopment.

These activities involve inherent challenges related to the diversity of the case mix and age range.

Different concepts were discussed in a recently published 'state of the art' paper about critically ill children.

With the paper's authors, we went through what is needed to take PICU survivorship to the next level.

Original paper: The brain in pediatric critical care: unique aspects of assessment, monitoring, investigations, and follow up

Speakers

Kate BROWN. Biomedical Research Centre, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London (UK). Institute of Cardiovascular, Science University College London, London (UK).

Robert TASKER. Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (USA). Selwyn College, Cambridge University, Cambridge (UK).

Rahul COSTA-PINTO. Department of Intensive Care, Austin Hospital, 145 Studley Road, Heidelberg, Victoria (AU). Department of Critical Care, Department of Medicine, the University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria (AU).