This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Christopher J. Chiu, MD: Welcome back to The Cribsiders on Medscape. We are the pediatric medicine podcast, and on these videos we recap our interviews with leading experts in the field to bring you clinical pearls, practice-changing knowledge, and answers to nagging questions about core topics in pediatric medicine.
Justin L. Berk, MD, MPH, MBA: One of our latest and most popular episodes is "Things We Do for No Reason in Pediatrics." Our recurring guests, Dr Lenny Feldman and Dr Carrie Herzke, spoke with us about high-value care. We discussed some of the common practices in pediatrics that might not actually have that much evidence to support them.
The first topic was blood cultures in the diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia. Say you have a kid with probable bacterial pneumonia. Should you get a blood culture on children who aren't that sick? The answer is actually "no." The blood culture positivity rate in community-acquired pneumonia is only about 2.5%, while the contamination rate is closer to 3%. You are more likely to find a contaminant than anything that's helpful. This is especially important because community-acquired pneumonia is likely to be viral —
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COMMENTARY
Three More Things We Do for No Reason in Pediatrics
Christopher J. Chiu, MD; Justin L. Berk, MD, MPH, MBA
DisclosuresApril 30, 2021
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Christopher J. Chiu, MD: Welcome back to The Cribsiders on Medscape. We are the pediatric medicine podcast, and on these videos we recap our interviews with leading experts in the field to bring you clinical pearls, practice-changing knowledge, and answers to nagging questions about core topics in pediatric medicine.
Justin L. Berk, MD, MPH, MBA: One of our latest and most popular episodes is "Things We Do for No Reason in Pediatrics." Our recurring guests, Dr Lenny Feldman and Dr Carrie Herzke, spoke with us about high-value care. We discussed some of the common practices in pediatrics that might not actually have that much evidence to support them.
The first topic was blood cultures in the diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia. Say you have a kid with probable bacterial pneumonia. Should you get a blood culture on children who aren't that sick? The answer is actually "no." The blood culture positivity rate in community-acquired pneumonia is only about 2.5%, while the contamination rate is closer to 3%. You are more likely to find a contaminant than anything that's helpful. This is especially important because community-acquired pneumonia is likely to be viral —
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Cite this: Three More Things We Do for No Reason in Pediatrics - Medscape - Apr 30, 2021.
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Authors and Disclosures
Authors and Disclosures
Authors
Christopher J. Chiu, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Ohio State University School of Medicine; Lead Physician, General Internal Medicine, OSU Outpatient Care East; Department of Internal Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio
Disclosure: Christopher J. Chiu, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Justin L. Berk, MD, MPH, MBA
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Disclosure: Justin L. Berk, MD, MPH, MBA, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.