Stories Category: Intensive Care
Antibiotics, Immunosuppressive Drugs and the Downfall of the Human Immune System
Today I'll discuss two more factors that can debilitate the human immune system (allowing the microbiome to better cause disease). They are antibiotics (when used too frequently) and immunosuppressive drugs: two of the most... read more
Placards Do Not Improve Hand Hygiene Adherence
Hand hygiene placards posted in a Denver hospital — including one that featured an image of two eyes looking directly at the viewer with a reminder to clean their hands — did not result in measurable improvements in hand... read more
The Effect of Dexmedetomidine on Outcomes of Cardiac Surgery in Elderly Patients
The goal of this retrospective study was to investigate the effects of perioperative use of dexmedetomidine (Dex) on outcomes for older patients undergoing cardiac surgery. A total of 505 patients (equal or greater than 65... read more
Optimizing Respiratory Management in Resource-limited Settings
This review focuses on the emerging body of literature regarding the management of acute respiratory failure (ARF) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The aim is to abstract management principles that are of relevance... read more
Machine-learning System Could Aid Critical Decisions in Sepsis Care
Researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have developed a predictive model that could guide clinicians in deciding when to give potentially life-saving drugs to patients being treated for sepsis in the... read more
Addressing Shortcomings in Infection and Sepsis Treatment Should Be Top of the Priority List
Hospitals are increasingly facing the challenge of cutting costs while also improving clinical outcomes. This is certainly true in the infectious disease sector, as unrecognized or ineffectively treated bacterial infections... read more
Is Pre-hospital Coagulation Management in Trauma Feasible?
Coagulation management remains a formidable challenge in severely bleeding trauma patients. A strong rationale suggests starting treatment of trauma-induced coagulopathy in the pre-hospital phase. The burden of trauma is... read more
Describing Organ Dysfunction in the ICU
Multiple organ dysfunction is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units (ICUs). Original development of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score was not to predict outcome, but to describe... read more
Handbook on the Neuropsychology of Traumatic Brain Injury
This book collects and synthesizes the latest thinking on the condition in its variety of cognitive and behavioral presentations, matched by a variety of clinical responses. Acknowledging the continuum of injury and the multi-stage... read more
Regeneration of Severely Damaged Lungs Using an Interventional Cross-circulation Platform
The number of available donor organs limits lung transplantation, the only lifesaving therapy for the increasing population of patients with end-stage lung disease. A prevalent etiology of injury that renders lungs unacceptable... read more
Closed ICU Model Linked to 100% Reduction in Several HAIs
A closed intensive care unit model, in which a patient is evaluated and admitted under an intensivist and patient care orders are written by ICU staff, can help reduce rates of several healthcare-associated infections (HAI),... read more
Diagnostic error increases mortality and length of hospital stay in patients presenting through the emergency room
Diagnostic errors occur frequently, especially in the emergency room. Estimates about the consequences of diagnostic error vary widely and little is known about the factors predicting error. Our objectives thus was to determine... read more
Where Night Is Day: The World of the ICU
Where Night Is Day is a nonfiction narrative grounded in the day-by-day, hour-by-hour rhythms of an ICU in a teaching hospital in the heart of New Mexico. It takes place over a thirteen-week period, the time of the average... read more
Mechanical Ventilation Enhances Extrapulmonary Sepsis-induced Lung Injury
These data show for the first time that otherwise noninjurious mechanical ventilation can exacerbate acute lung injury (ALI) due to extrapulmonary sepsis underscoring a potential interactive contribution of common events... read more
