Although some studies have portrayed tight blood sugar control
as a potential means of lowering infection rates in critically
ill adults, a new study-led by principal investigator Michael
Agus, MD, director of the Medicine Critical Care Program at
Boston Children's Hospital-found no indication that the approach
benefits pediatric patients undergoing heart surgery. The
results of the Safe Pediatric Euglycemia in Cardiac Surgery
(SPECS) trial, which was conducted at Boston Children's and at
the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, will
appear in the September 7 online edition of the New England
Journal of Medicine and in the September 27 print version of the
publication. SPECS examined the effects of tight glycemic
control with insulin compared to standard glucose management in
980 children hospitalized in the cardiac intensive care unit
(CICU). All of these patients, who ranged in age from newborn to
age 3, underwent open heart surgery with heart-lung bypass. "The
cardiac problems faced by the