Echocardiography and Lung Ultrasonography for the Assessment and Management of AHF

Echocardiography and Lung Ultrasonography for the Assessment and Management of AHF

Echocardiography is increasingly recommended for the diagnosis and assessment of patients with severe cardiac disease, including acute heart failure (AHF). Echocardiography and LUS can assist in the rapid assessment of patients... read more

Adherence to Guidelines for the Management of Donors After Brain Death

Adherence to Guidelines for the Management of Donors After Brain Death

Guideline adherence to an expert panel predefined care set in brain death (DBD) donor management proved moderate leaving substantial room for improvement. An importance-performance analysis can be used to improve implementation... read more

Delirium in Critical Illness: Haloperidol vs Ziprasidone?

Delirium in Critical Illness: Haloperidol vs Ziprasidone?

Delirium is defined as an acute disorder of consciousness which can occur in up to 80% of mechanically ventilated ICU patients. This acute cognitive dysfunction is associated with prolonged hospital stay, increased mortality,... read more

Antithrombotic Therapy for Venous Thromboembolic Disease

Antithrombotic Therapy for Venous Thromboembolic Disease

This JAMA Clinical Guidelines Synopsis summarizes the American College of Chest Physicians' 2016 recommendations on antithrombotic therapy for venous thromboembolism (VTE). The estimated annual incidence of VTE, defined... read more

Improving Hospital Survival and Reducing Brain Dysfunction at Seven California Community Hospitals

Improving Hospital Survival and Reducing Brain Dysfunction at Seven California Community Hospitals

The evidence-based ABCDEF bundle was successfully implemented in seven community hospital ICUs using an interprofessional team model to operationalize the Pain, Agitation, and Delirium guidelines. Higher bundle compliance... read more

Oxygen Therapy for Acutely Ill Medical Patients

Oxygen Therapy for Acutely Ill Medical Patients

It is a longstanding cultural norm to provide supplemental oxygen to sick patients regardless of their blood oxygen saturation. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis has shown that too much supplemental oxygen increases... read more

Conflicts of interest disclosure forms and management in critical care clinical practice guidelines

Conflicts of interest disclosure forms and management in critical care clinical practice guidelines

The current conflicts of interest (COIs) disclosure forms of selected professional societies provide more attention to financial disclosures and COIs and less attention to detecting and managing intellectual COIs, while rarely... read more

ESPEN Guideline on Clinical Nutrition in the ICU

ESPEN Guideline on Clinical Nutrition in the ICU

Following the new ESPEN Standard Operating Procedures, the previous guidelines to provide best medical nutritional therapy to critically ill patients have been updated. These guidelines define who are the patients at risk,... read more

Update on Perioperative Acute Kidney Injury

Update on Perioperative Acute Kidney Injury

Acute kidney injury (AKI) in the perioperative period is a common complication and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. A standard definition and staging system for AKI has been developed, incorporating a... read more

Sepsis: Learn the Signs and Document

Sepsis: Learn the Signs and Document

Writing in the MJA, researchers have reported the findings of a prospective cohort study comparing estimates of the incidence and mortality of sepsis using clinical diagnosis or the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care... read more

High Flow Nasal Oxygen for Acute Bronchiolitis?

High Flow Nasal Oxygen for Acute Bronchiolitis?

Since bronchiolitis is a clinical diagnosis, there is no test, including viral testing and radiography, which rules it in or out (Schuh et al 2007). Sadly, despite multiple guidelines (NICE, AAP, CPS), there has also been... read more

Epidemiology and Changes in Mortality of Sepsis After the Implementation of Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines

Epidemiology and Changes in Mortality of Sepsis After the Implementation of Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines

This is a prospective, multicenter, observational study performed during a 5-month period in 2011 in a network of 11 intensive care units (ICUs). We compared our findings with those obtained in the same ICUs in a study conducted... read more

New Guideline Aids in Diagnosing Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

New Guideline Aids in Diagnosing Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

A new international guideline has been developed to help physicians diagnosis idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a rare and often fatal lung disease whose cause is unknown. IPF is the most common and deadly form of a group... read more

Percutaneous Repair or Medical Treatment for Secondary Mitral Regurgitation

Percutaneous Repair or Medical Treatment for Secondary Mitral Regurgitation

Among patients with severe secondary mitral regurgitation, the rate of death or unplanned hospitalization for heart failure at 1 year did not differ significantly between patients who underwent percutaneous mitral-valve repair... read more