Objective: To summarize the First Chilean Congress on Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. DATA SOURCE/EXTRACTION: Program schedule, presentations, abstracts.
Study selection: Descriptive summary of the congress.
Conclusions: The Chilean Society of Pediatric Critical Care organized the First Pediatric Intensive Care Congress in Chile, having a registration of 217 delegates. All the pediatric intensive care units of the country had a representative in the Congress either as a delegate or a faculty member, which provided an excellent opportunity for interactions between them. The international faculty addressed state-of-the-art issues, with a charge of highlighting basic science relevant to clinical practice, which motivated long interactive question-and-answer sessions with the audience. Strong evidence was presented by Chilean faculty debaters who discussed controversial topics, making these sessions very attractive. An entire day was scheduled with a simultaneous nursing session. More than 80 intensive care nurses benefited from a very interactive day with five symposia and short oral presentations. A randomized multi-institutional research protocol studying reintubation rate using three methods for weaning from mechanical ventilation was discussed during the meeting. Thirteen units committed to participate. Twenty-three posters were displayed in the congress. Posters describing the activity of pediatric intensive care units were also presented. The mean for intensive care unit beds was 6.8 and for intermediate care beds was 7.1. Annual admissions showed a mean of 640 patients, and mortality rate ranged from 4.1% to 12%, with a mean of 6.7%