Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Outcomes in Children With Sepsis-Associated Encephalopathy Admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

The authors prospectively compared the neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes in 50 consecutive children with sepsis-associated encephalopathy admitted to intensive care unit with healthy controls. Children with sepsis-associated encephalopathy had significantly worse mean verbal IQ, full-scale IQ, General Development Score, and its physical, adaptive, social-emotional, cognitive, and communication subscales. Significant proportion of cases (52% vs 32% in controls) had low intelligence. Decline in school performance (44%), disobedience (28%), and stubbornness/irritable behavior (26%) were the most common behavior changes. Children with Glasgow Coma Scale score ≤10 and ≤8 had impairments in full-scale IQ even though overall Glasgow Coma Scale score did not show significant correlation with developmental outcomes. In conclusion, children with sepsis-associated encephalopathy have delayed neurodevelopment, low verbal IQ, decline in school performance and low intelligence at short-term follow-up. Irritability, shock and duration of sedation are associated with poor behavioral outcomes, especially scholastic performance.