Evaluation of Methods for Extrapolating or Estimating the Size of Children in Pediatric Intensive Care

NCT03913247 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 477

Last updated 2025-11-21

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Size is a key data used daily by dietary teams; the paramedical team, nurse and diet are in charge of its measures.

In pediatric intensive care unit, a reliable size of the child must be obtained. It allows to realize:

* a nutritional assessment based on the World Health Organization (WHO) nutritional indices such as the Body Mass Index (BMI), growth chart monitoring and other nutritional indices. Nutritional status should be assessed and followed in pediatric intensive care as it is correlated with the prognosis of children.
* an estimate of the energy needs by calculation of the rest energy expenditure.
* a calculation of the body surface, useful for drug prescription, evaluation of burn scores, calculation of water and energy requirements and indexing of hemodynamic and ventilatory data.

An error in size measurement results in an error in BMI, calculation of energy requirements, and body surface area.

The WHO has defined "gold standard" criteria for measuring height in children, distinguishing the less than two years in whom the size is measured strictly lengthened, using a metric, and the more than two years in which height is measured standing with a stadiometer. In the context of pediatric resuscitation, the criteria for WHO size measurement are difficult to meet (coma, sedation, respiratory assistance, catheter, monitoring, proclive position, etc.) compromising standing or rectitude required for measurements.

The child is a growing organism. Health book sizes and declarative sizes are not always up-to-date.

It is therefore important to overcome these difficulties by using estimating or extrapolation methods that are applicable and safe in pediatric intensive care unit.

Currently, in pediatric intensive care units, the size evaluation, by direct measurement, estimation or extrapolation of segmental measurement, is not systematic because of the complexity of the measurement; To date, no method is used as a reference method in pediatric intensive care.

Among Children in pediatric intensive care unit (which does not usually meet the criteria of the WHO Gold Standard for Measurement of Height), to determine the optimal method for size measurement, by comparing different methods of estimating / extrapolating the size, gold standard WHO (achievable after the stay in intensive care).

Conditions

  • Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Interventions

OTHER

Size Measurement using a measuring tape, a caliper and a metric

Each patient will have the following measure: measure of the span, the tibia, the ulna, the distance between the hill and the knee, the head, the trunk and the leg. The different measures will be done using a measuring tape and with a caliper. Before leaving the intensive care unit, each patients will be measured according to the WHO standard, that is to say strictly lengthened, using a metric for patient younger than 2 and stand up using a stadiometer for patient older than 2.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Hospices Civils de Lyon

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Carole Ford-Chessel · Hospices Civils de Lyon

Eligibility

Min Age
28 Days
Max Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-11-29
Primary Completion
2022-12-22
Completion
2022-12-26

Countries

  • Belgium
  • France
  • Lebanon
  • Switzerland

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03913247 on ClinicalTrials.gov