Decreases in Nephrotoxic Pain Medications Are Not Associated With Increased Opioid Utilization in Critically Ill Children

Objectives: Quality improvement initiatives to decrease rates of nephrotoxic medication exposure have reduced rates of acute kidney injury (AKI) in noncritically ill children. The objective of our study was to analyze the implementation of a similar program in critically ill children and to measure important balancing measures including opioid and benzodiazepine exposure.

Design: Prospective quality improvement study.

Setting: PICU at Children's Hospital Colorado between 2018 and 2020.

Patients: All children admitted to PICU.

Interventions: Quality improvement initiative called Nephrotoxic Injury Negated by Just-In-Time Action (NINJA).

Measurement and main results: Eight thousand eight hundred thirty-three PICU patient admissions were included. Mean rates of nephrotoxic medication exposure/1,000 PICU patient days decreased from 46 to 26, whereas rates of nephrotoxic AKI/1,000 PICU patient days did not change. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug dispenses per 1,000 patient days were reduced from 521 to 456. Similarly, opioid and benzodiazepine exposures per 1,000 patient days were reduced from 812 to 524 and 441 to 227, respectively, during the study observation period.

Conclusions: The NINJA intervention was efficaciously implemented in our single-center PICU. Nephrotoxic exposure is a modifiable factor that did not inadvertently increase exposure to opioids and benzodiazepines.