Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration in Patients With Severe Sepsis
Among patients with severe manifestations of sepsis, initiation of empirical antimicrobial therapy significantly reduces the sensitivity of blood cultures drawn shortly after treatment initiation. Of 3,164 participants... read more
Occupational Therapy in the ICU
The role of occupational therapists in ICU rehabilitation is not currently well established. Current interventions in the ICU are dominated by physical rehabilitation with a growing role in communication and delirium... read more
Myocardial Ischemia During Ventilator Weaning
This observational study showed the pulmonary edema (WiPO) occurred in a significant number of critically ill patients who failed a first spontaneous breathing trial (SBT), while cardiac ischemia (WiCI) was less frequent.... read more
Mobilization Practices for Patients with Burn Injury in Critical Care
Mobilization therapy of patients with burns in the ICU was characterized by a low mobility level during mechanical ventilation with a low functional status at hospital discharge. Of the 74 patients admitted, 66% were placed... read more
Vasoactive Medication and Randomized Clinical Trials
Vasoactive medication is one of the cornerstones in the treatment of critically ill patients in shock. Shock can be defined as a failure of the circulatory system to provide adequate tissue perfusion resulting in cellular... read more
Ramelteon for Prevention of Postoperative Delirium
Ramelteon 8 mg did not prevent postoperative delirium in patients admitted for elective cardiac surgery. Incident delirium was measured twice daily using the Confusion Assessment Method-ICU. The safety outcome was... read more
Traditional vs. Alternative Metrics to Measure the Impact on Critical Care Medicine
In this analysis of major pulmonary and critical care journals the correlation between traditional publishing metrics and Altmetric Attention Scores (AAS) was fair, with a strong positive correlation between citations and... read more
Automated vs. Non-automated Weaning for Reducing Mechanical Ventilation Duration for Critically Ill
Automated systems may result in clinically meaningful reduced durations of weaning, ventilation and ICU stay. Overall, these systems appear to be safe and can be considered a reasonable approach in the management of ventilator... read more
Comparison of Echocardiographic Indices of RVEF in Critically Ill Patients
Though echocardiographic evaluation assesses the right ventricular systolic function, which of the existing parameters best reflects the right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) in the critically ill patients is still uncertain.... read more
Clinical Assessment of Critically Ill Patients by Whole-body Ultrasonography
Critical care ultrasonography (CCUS) is increasingly advocated and used, and is defined as point-of-care image acquisition, interpretation and clinical application, all performed by the critical care clinician, and directed... read more
Impact of Critical Illness on Resource Utilization
An ICU admission is associated with increased resource utilization including hospital readmissions, with many due to an ambulatory care sensitive condition. Lower socioeconomic status and higher severity of illness are associated... read more
Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis
A riveting exploration of the most difficult and important part of what doctors do, by Yale School of Medicine physician Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of the monthly New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis," the inspiration... read more
Critically Ill Patients Show a Differential Contractile Response to Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation
This retrospective sub-analysis aimed to outline the characteristics of, as well as predictors for, a contractile response to Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES), and also potential clinical benefits resulting from... read more
Vitamin D Deficiency in ICU Patients
Vitamin D research has experienced a true hype in all fields of medicine in the last decades. In critical illness, this increased interest has only started 10 years ago. The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in... read more
Incidence of Hypoglycemia in Following Insulin‐based Acute Treatment of Hyperkalemia
Iatrogenic hypoglycemia, as a result of treatment for hyperkalemia, is a common occurrence. Hyperkalemia occurs disproportionately in patients with acute kidney injury or end‐stage renal disease, and these patients are... read more
Oxygen Treatment in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine
Hypoxemia should certainly be avoided, but the fact that the liberal administration of oxygen to patients in intensive care units and emergency rooms tends to increase morbidity and mortality implies the advisability of a... read more
Refractory Septic Shock: Our Pragmatic Approach
Despite timely intervention, there exists a small subgroup of patients with septic shock who develop progressive multi-organ failure. Seemingly refractory to conventional therapy, they exhibit a very high mortality. Such... read more
Key Enablers and Barriers for Improving ICU Outcomes
Several enablers and barriers to implementing ICU follow-up clinics and peer support groups should be taken into account and leveraged to improve ICU recovery. Among the most important enablers are motivated clinician leaders... read more
Sedation is Necessary to Minimize Patients’ Discomfort During Mechanical Ventilation
More than half of critical care nurses believe sedation is needed to minimize discomfort and distress among patients receiving mechanical ventilation, according to survey results published recently in the American Journal... read more
Neonatal Early-Onset Sepsis Evaluation
Twelve years ago, we began a National Institutes of Health–funded study of neonatal early-onset sepsis (EOS) whose goal was to develop multivariate predictive models that could be used by clinicians to evaluate a newborn’s... read more
Platelet Function During ECMO in Adult Patients
Employing impedance aggregometry and flow cytometry, we found both impaired platelet aggregation and decreased platelet activation on day 1 of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) support compared with healthy controls.... read more
Implementation of a Standardized Transfusion Protocol for Cardiac Patients Treated With Venoarterial ECMO Is Associated With Decreased Blood Component Utilization and May Improve Clinical Outcome
The data indicate that implementation of a standardized transfusion protocol, using more restrictive transfusion indications in cardiac ECMO patients, was associated with reduced blood product utilization, decreased complications,... read more
