Robinder G. Khemani, MD

Dr. Khemani is a Pediatric Intensive Care Physician and Clinical Researcher at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. His major area of research interest involves using observational data to answer important clinical questions in the realm of pediatric critical care. This includes but is not limited to the creation and validation of quality indicators and severity of illness scores to develop objective criteria for comparing pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) outcomes internationally. This work involves both disease specific markers for certain subgroups of PICU patients, or global ICU populations. These findings will help target specific areas for quality improvement, and help evaluate new interventions and treatment modalities.

He is also interested in pediatric mechanical ventilation, lung injury, and respiratory physiology, both translationally and at the bedside. He has specific interests in acute respiratory distress syndrome and upper airway obstruction: developing and validating minimally invasive pulmonary function techniques. Moreover, he uses his background in statistical modeling to examine the impact of different treatment regimens on cohorts of patients with specific respiratory disease such as upper airway obstruction, obstructive airways, hypoxemic respiratory failure, and acute lung injury.

• Incidence and epidemiology of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome in Argentina: Secondary analysis of data from the International PARDIE Study. Arch Argent Pediatr. 2026 Jul 30.. View in PubMed
• Publisher Correction: Lung- and diaphragm-protective mechanical ventilation in acute respiratory distress syndrome. Intensive Care Med. 2026 Jul 20.. View in PubMed
• Lung- and diaphragm-protective mechanical ventilation in acute respiratory distress syndrome. Intensive Care Med. 2026 Jul 07.. View in PubMed
• Flow Asynchronies During Pressure Support Ventilation in Children: A Bench Model Study. Respir Care. 2026 Jul 01; 19433654261459034.. View in PubMed
• Transpulmonary Pressure-Guided Ventilation in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Methodological Challenges on the Path to Clinical Implementation. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2026 Jun 22.. View in PubMed
• The Accuracy of Plateau and Driving Pressures During Assisted and Spontaneous Ventilation Depends on the Degree of Inspiratory Effort and Duration of the Inspiratory Hold. Respir Care. 2026 Jun 11; 19433654261450212.. View in PubMed
• Development of a neurologic deterioration risk score in pediatric mild traumatic brain injury and intracranial injuries. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2026 May 01; 100(5):795-803.. View in PubMed
• Diaphragm Thickening Fraction for Predicting Esophageal Pressure and Ventilator Weaning in Children. Chest. 2026 Mar 23.. View in PubMed
• Electrical impedance tomography guided single lung ventilation in a pediatric patient with ARDS. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2026 Mar 01; 212(3):526-529.. View in PubMed
• Risk factors for mortality in children with hypoxemia in resource-constrained settings: a secondary analysis of Global Paediatric Acute Critical Illness Point Prevalence Study (PARITY). BMC Glob Public Health. 2026 Jan 09; 4(1):5.. View in PubMed
• Decision Assist During Mechanical Ventilation. Respir Care. 2026 02; 71(2):226-236.. View in PubMed
• Post Extubation Noninvasive Respiratory Support for Pediatric ARDS. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2025 Nov; 60(11):e71375.. View in PubMed
• Differentiating Lung From Chest Wall Mechanics Is Difficult Without Esophageal Manometry in Children With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Crit Care Med. 2025 Nov 01; 53(11):e2211-e2221.. View in PubMed
• Contemporary Trends in Pediatric Extubation Failure and Noninvasive Respiratory Support Use. Chest. 2026 Jan; 169(1):106-114.. View in PubMed
• Randomized Trial of Lung and Diaphragm Protective Ventilation in Children. NEJM Evid. 2025 Jun; 4(6):EVIDoa2400360.. View in PubMed
• An overview of patient-ventilator asynchrony in children. Expert Rev Respir Med. 2025 May; 19(5):435-447.. View in PubMed
• Phoenix Sepsis Criteria in Critically Ill Children: Retrospective Validation Using a United States Nine-Center Dataset, 2012-2018. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2025 Feb 01; 26(2):e155-e165.. View in PubMed
• Planning a Phased Guideline Implementation Strategy Across the Multicenter Ventilation Liberation for Kids (VentLib4Kids) Collaborative. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2025 Mar 01; 26(3):e396-e407.. View in PubMed
• Challenges in using the ROX index as a predictor of failure in high flow nasal cannula in infants with respiratory failure. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2025 Jan; 60(1):e27332.. View in PubMed
• Phenotypes based on respiratory drive and effort to identify the risk factors when P0.1 fails to estimate ∆PES in ventilated children. Crit Care. 2024 10 04; 28(1):325.. View in PubMed
• Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation for acute asthma in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 10 02; 10:CD012067.. View in PubMed
• A Master Protocol Template for Pediatric ARDS Studies. Respir Care. 2024 09 26; 69(10):1284-1293.. View in PubMed
• Implementing the Pediatric Ventilator Liberation Guidelines Using the Most Current Evidence. Respir Care. 2024 06 28; 69(7):869-880.. View in PubMed
• Framework for Research Gaps in Pediatric Ventilator Liberation. Chest. 2024 Nov; 166(5):1056-1070.. View in PubMed
• Noninvasive Surrogate for Physiologic Dead Space Using the Carbon Dioxide Ventilatory Equivalent: Testing in a Single-Center Cohort, 2017-2023. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2024 Sep 01; 25(9):784-794.. View in PubMed
• Association between Age and Mortality in Pediatric and Adult Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2024 04 01; 209(7):871-878.. View in PubMed
• The authors reply. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2024 Mar 01; 25(3):e169-e171.. View in PubMed
• Estimation of inspiratory effort using airway occlusion maneuvers in ventilated children: a secondary analysis of an ongoing randomized trial testing a lung and diaphragm protective ventilation strategy. Crit Care. 2023 11 29; 27(1):466.. View in PubMed
• Predicting Duration of Invasive Mechanical Ventilation in the Pediatric ICU. Respir Care. 2023 11 25; 68(12):1623-1630.. View in PubMed
• Critical Emergency Department Interventions and Clinical Deterioration in Children With Nonsevere Traumatic Intracranial Hemorrhage. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2024 Jun 01; 40(6):e68-e75.. View in PubMed
• Diagnosing Pediatric ARDS Still Requires Clinical Judgment. Chest. 2023 09; 164(3):568-569.. View in PubMed
• The Modified Clinical Progression Scale for Pediatric Patients: Evaluation as a Severity Metric and Outcome Measure in Severe Acute Viral Respiratory Illness. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2023 12 01; 24(12):998-1009.. View in PubMed
• Association of Extubation Failure Rates With High-Flow Nasal Cannula, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, and Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure vs Conventional Oxygen Therapy in Infants and Young Children: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. JAMA Pediatr. 2023 08 01; 177(8):774-781.. View in PubMed
• A Novel Application of Spectrograms with Machine Learning Can Detect Patient Ventilator Dyssynchrony. Biomed Signal Process Control. 2023 Sep; 86(Pt C).. View in PubMed
• Derivation, Validation, and Clinical Relevance of a Pediatric Sepsis Phenotype With Persistent Hypoxemia, Encephalopathy, and Shock. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2023 10 01; 24(10):795-806.. View in PubMed
• Noninvasive Ventilation for Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Experience From the 2016/2017 Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology Prospective Cohort Study. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2023 09 01; 24(9):715-726.. View in PubMed
• Fundamental concepts and the latest evidence for esophageal pressure monitoring. J Intensive Care. 2023 May 22; 11(1):22.. View in PubMed
• Reply to Havan et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2023 05 15; 207(10):1405-1406.. View in PubMed
• Effort and work-of-breathing parameters strongly correlate with increased resistance in an animal model. Pediatr Res. 2023 09; 94(3):944-949.. View in PubMed
• A Web-Based Platform for the Automatic Stratification of ARDS Severity. Diagnostics (Basel). 2023 Mar 01; 13(5).. View in PubMed
• Association of Interventions With Outcomes in Children At-Risk for Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology Study. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2023 07 01; 24(7):574-583.. View in PubMed
• The end-tidal alveolar dead space fraction for risk stratification during the first week of invasive mechanical ventilation: an observational cohort study. Crit Care. 2023 02 09; 27(1):54.. View in PubMed
• Executive Summary of the Second International Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (PALICC-2). Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2023 02 01; 24(2):143-168.. View in PubMed
• Methodology of the Second Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2023 02 01; 24(12 Suppl 2):S76-S86.. View in PubMed
• A Network Meta-analysis of Dexamethasone for Preventing Postextubation Upper Airway Obstruction in Children. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2023 01; 20(1):118-130.. View in PubMed
• Executive Summary: International Clinical Practice Guidelines for Pediatric Ventilator Liberation, A Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI) Network Document. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2023 01 01; 207(1):17-28.. View in PubMed
• Understanding clinical and biological heterogeneity to advance precision medicine in paediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome. Lancet Respir Med. 2023 02; 11(2):197-212.. View in PubMed
• Operational Definitions Related to Pediatric Ventilator Liberation. Chest. 2023 05; 163(5):1130-1143.. View in PubMed
• Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators (PALISI): Evolution of an Investigator-Initiated Research Network. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2022 12 01; 23(12):1056-1066.. View in PubMed
• Pediatric Ventilation Liberation: A Survey of International Practice Among 555 Pediatric Intensivists. Crit Care Explor. 2022 Sep; 4(9):e0756.. View in PubMed
• What’s new in paediatric ventilator liberation? Intensive Care Med. 2022 11; 48(11):1635-1637. Ramnarayan P, Blackwood B, Khemani RG . View in PubMed
• A 30-Minute Spontaneous Breathing Trial Misses Many Children Who Go On to Fail a 120-Minute Spontaneous Breathing Trial. Chest. 2023 01; 163(1):115-127.. View in PubMed
• Executive Summary: International Clinical Practice Guidelines for Pediatric Ventilator Liberation, A PALISI Network Document. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022 Aug 15.. View in PubMed
• Clinical Challenges in Pediatric Ventilation Liberation: A Meta-Narrative Review. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2022 12 01; 23(12):999-1008.. View in PubMed
• Pleural and transpulmonary pressures to tailor protective ventilation in children. Thorax. 2023 01; 78(1):97-105.. View in PubMed
• Challenges Remain to Assess Post-ICU Morbidity and Identify Attributable Risk in Children With Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2022 07 01; 23(7):571-573.. View in PubMed
• Development of a Pleural Pressure Catheter via Continuous Fiberoptic Esophageal Pressure Measurements. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2022 07; 2022:3269-3272.. View in PubMed
• Continuous noninvasive blood gas estimation in critically ill pediatric patients with respiratory failure. Sci Rep. 2022 06 14; 12(1):9853.. View in PubMed
• Normalization to Predicted Body Weight May Underestimate Mechanical Energy in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022 06 01; 205(11):1360-1363.. View in PubMed
• Ventilation Liberation Practices Among 380 International PICUs. Crit Care Explor. 2022 Jun; 4(6):e0710.. View in PubMed
• Development of a deep learning model that predicts Bi-level positive airway pressure failure. Sci Rep. 2022 05 26; 12(1):8907.. View in PubMed
• Fluid Balance: Another Variable to Consider with Diaphragm Dysfunction? Anesthesiology. 2022 05 01; 136(5):672-674. Khemani RG . View in PubMed
• High-Flow Nasal Cannula Reduces Effort of Breathing But Not Consistently via Positive End-Expiratory Pressure. Chest. 2022 10; 162(4):861-871.. View in PubMed
• Epidemiology and Outcomes of Critically Ill Children at Risk for Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology Study. Crit Care Med. 2022 03 01; 50(3):363-374.. View in PubMed
• Mechanical power in pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome: a PARDIE study. Crit Care. 2022 01 03; 26(1):2.. View in PubMed
• Respiratory Dysfunction Criteria in Critically Ill Children: The PODIUM Consensus Conference. Pediatrics. 2022 01 01; 149(1 Suppl 1):S48-S52.. View in PubMed
• Pediatric Organ Dysfunction Information Update Mandate (PODIUM) Contemporary Organ Dysfunction Criteria: Executive Summary. Pediatrics. 2022 01 01; 149(1 Suppl 1):S1-S12.. View in PubMed
• Should We Embrace Mechanical Power to Understand the Risk of Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury in Children? Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2022 01 01; 23(1):71-74. Khemani RG . . View in PubMed
• Airway microbiome dynamics and relationship to ventilator-associated infection in intubated pediatric patients. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2022 02; 57(2):508-518.. View in PubMed
• OLA strategy for ARDS: Its effect on mortality depends on achieved recruitment (PaO2/FiO2) and mechanical power. Systematic review and meta-analysis with meta-regression. Med Intensiva (Engl Ed). 2021 Dec; 45(9):516-531.. View in PubMed
• Tracheobronchial Foreign Body Aspiration Diagnosed with Electrical Impedance Tomography. Case Rep Pediatr. 2021; 2021:9951838.. View in PubMed
• Subglottic Post-Extubation Upper Airway Obstruction Is Associated With Long-Term Airway Morbidity in Children. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2021 10 01; 22(10):e502-e512.. View in PubMed
• Adherence to Lung-Protective Ventilation Principles in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology Study. Crit Care Med. 2021 10 01; 49(10):1779-1789.. View in PubMed
• Questions About Fluid Management in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and the Design of Clinical Trials. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2021 09 01; 22(9):847-849.. View in PubMed
• Reply: Not All Breaths That Follow a Ventilator Cycle Are Reverse Triggering. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2021 07; 18(7):1264-1266.. View in PubMed
• Update in Critical Care 2020. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2021 05 01; 203(9):1088-1098.. View in PubMed
• Frequency and Risk Factors for Reverse Triggering in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome during Synchronized Intermittent Mandatory Ventilation. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2021 05; 18(5):820-829.. View in PubMed
• Epidemiology of Critical Interventions in Children With Traumatic Intracranial Hemorrhage. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2021 Apr 01; 37(4):e196-e202.. View in PubMed
• Trends and variation in repeat neuroimaging for children with traumatic intracranial hemorrhage. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2021 Apr; 2(2):e12400.. View in PubMed
• Direction and Magnitude of Change in Plateau From Peak Pressure During Inspiratory Holds Can Identify the Degree of Spontaneous Effort and Elastic Workload in Ventilated Patients. Crit Care Med. 2021 03 01; 49(3):517-526.. View in PubMed
• Real-Time Effort Driven Ventilator Management: A Pilot Study. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2020 11; 21(11):933-940.. View in PubMed
• Design and Rationale for Common Data Elements for Clinical Research in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2020 11; 21(11):e1038-e1041.. View in PubMed
• Ventilator Liberation in the Pediatric ICU. Respir Care. 2020 Oct; 65(10):1601-1610.. View in PubMed
• Lung- and Diaphragm-Protective Ventilation. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020 10 01; 202(7):950-961.. View in PubMed
• The Association Between Ventilatory Ratio and Mortality in Children and Young Adults. Respir Care. 2021 Feb; 66(2):205-212.. View in PubMed
• High Breath-by-Breath Variability Is Associated With Extubation Failure in Children. Crit Care Med. 2020 08; 48(8):1165-1174.. View in PubMed
• Thresholds for oximetry alarms and target range in the NICU: an observational assessment based on likely oxygen tension and maturity. BMC Pediatr. 2020 06 27; 20(1):317.. View in PubMed
• Early Use of Adjunctive Therapies for Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A PARDIE Study. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020 06 01; 201(11):1389-1397.. View in PubMed
• Predicting Mortality in Children With Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology Study. Crit Care Med. 2020 06; 48(6):e514-e522.. View in PubMed
• Research and Quality Improvement Must Evolve With Changing Clinical Practice. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2020 06; 21(6):587-588.. View in PubMed
• Prognostic relevance and inter-observer reliability of chest-imaging in pediatric ARDS: a pediatric acute respiratory distress incidence and epidemiology (PARDIE) study. Intensive Care Med. 2020 Jul; 46(7):1382-1393.. View in PubMed
• The role of computer-based clinical decision support systems to deliver protective mechanical ventilation. Curr Opin Crit Care. 2020 02; 26(1):73-81.. View in PubMed
• Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist mitigates ventilator-induced diaphragm injury in rabbits. Respir Res. 2019 Dec 23; 20(1):293.. View in PubMed
• Value and limitations of real-world data to understand paediatric adherence to positive airway pressure therapy. Lancet Digit Health. 2020 02; 2(2):e56-e57.. View in PubMed
• A Phase II randomized controlled trial for lung and diaphragm protective ventilation (Real-time Effort Driven VENTilator management). Contemp Clin Trials. 2020 01; 88:105893.. View in PubMed
• Definition and global epidemiology of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome. Ann Transl Med. 2019 Oct; 7(19):502.. View in PubMed
• Age-Stratified Risk of Critical Illness in Young Children Presenting to the Emergency Department with Suspected Influenza. J Pediatr. 2019 12; 215:132-138.e2.. View in PubMed
• Risk Factors for Mortality and Pre-ICU Fluid Balance Among Critically Ill Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients. J Intensive Care Med. 2020 Nov; 35(11):1265-1270.. View in PubMed
• Body Habitus and Risk of Mortality in Pediatric Sepsis and Septic Shock: A Retrospective Cohort Study. J Pediatr. 2019 07; 210:178-183.e2.. View in PubMed
• Minimal Change in Cardiac Index With Increasing PEEP in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Front Pediatr. 2019; 7:9.. View in PubMed

• Newth, Christopher