ALTE Study: Interviews With Parents of Infants Seen in an Emergency Department

An apparent life-threatening event (ALTE) refers to the sudden occurrence in an infant of symptoms such as breathing irregularities, stiffness, or limpness, that appear frightening to caretakers, prompting them to seek medical care. ALTE was first defined in 1986 by an NIH consensus panel. Population-based epidemiologic studies have reported a range of 2.5 to 9.4 ALTE admissions per 1000 live births.

While few ALTEs are truly life-threatening, both clinicians and parents may assume that the infant's life was-and may still be-in danger until proven otherwise. Since the actual risk of an adverse outcome in a well-appearing ALTE patient is unknown, this concern often leads to an extensive diagnostic evaluation and hospitalization to rule out serious occult pathology even when a patient appears well on presentation and has an unremarkable clinical assessment.

Nonspecific inpatient diagnostic evaluations can harm patients by causing complications from invasive testing, false-positive test results, and vulnerable child syndrome. Given these risks and the low probability that such testing will identify a treatable diagnosis in a well-appearing infant, the American Academy of Pediatrics has established a Guideline Committee on ALTEs to develop recommendations for the management of these patients. Specifically, the Committee is formulating criteria to define a low-risk group of infants presenting with ALTE who may be safely discharged after minimal diagnostic testing and a few hours of observation. While an evidence-based clinical guideline has the potential to reduce unnecessary testing and hospital admissions, anecdotal evidence suggests that some parents may have been so frightened by the event that they will resist returning home with their baby even if the objective risk is extremely small. To gather data about parental attitudes, the investigators propose to survey subjects (parents of infants who have experienced an ALTE) to learn whether or not they would accept returning home after a brief period of observation in the emergency department if the physician determines that it is safe to do so. This survey will focus on subject's willingness to forgo admission to the hospital when the risks associated with hospitalization (e.g., hospital-acquired infection, complications of invasive diagnostic procedures) might outweigh the risk of a recurrent ALTE or serious underlying condition. Subject's with an obvious need for admission based on the initial clinical assessment will be excluded, since discharge home would not be an option. Study findings will inform efforts to develop clinical guidelines for the management of an ALTE that take into account both parental attitudes and objective evidence. Without both types of data, implementation of such a guideline will be problematic.