qSOFA Performance Score as Prognostic Tool in Infected Patients Outside the ICU
A positive qSOFA score had high specificity outside the ICU in early detection of in-hospital mortality, acute organ dysfunction, and ICU admission, but low sensitivity may have limitations as a predictive tool for adverse... read more
Ideas for Future Intensive Care
Progress toward determining the true worth of ongoing practices or value of recent innovations can be glacially slow when we insist on following the conventional stepwise scientific pathway. Moreover, a widely accepted but... read more
Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments for Patients with Severe TBI
The decision to withdraw life support from patients with severe brain injuries is very difficult. In a study conducted in Canadian Medical Association Journal, critical care physicians were asked about the decision-making... read more
Early Neuromuscular Blockade in the ARDS
Among patients with moderate-to-severe ARDS who were treated with a strategy involving a high PEEP, there was no significant difference in mortality at 90 days between patients who received an early and continuous cisatracurium... read more
Detection of Brain Activation in Unresponsive Patients with Acute Brain Injury
A dissociation between the absence of behavioral responses to motor commands and the evidence of brain activation in response to these commands in EEG recordings was found in 15% of patients in a consecutive series of patients... read more
Subanesthetic Ketamine Infusions for the Management of Pediatric Pain in Non‐critical Care Settings
Ketamine can effectively be used as part of a multimodal analgesic regimen in pediatric patients in non‐critical care settings. Our five‐year experience using low‐dose ketamine infusions highlights an acceptable side... read more
Effective Sepsis Detection with Peripheral Blood Monocyte Distribution
This study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of peripheral blood monocyte distribution width alone and in combination with white blood cells (WBCs) count for early sepsis detection in the emergency department. An monocyte... read more
Venous Doppler and Veno-Cardiac Coupling
Concepts have been clanging around my head since I participated in Philippe Rola's sedulous Hospitalist & Resuscitationist Conference in Montreal. Initially, the abstractions of ventriculo-arterial coupling, Guytonian physiology... read more
Metabolic sepsis resuscitation: the evidence behind Vitamin C
Sepsis resuscitation generally focuses on hemodynamics. Rivers of ink have been spilled writing about oxygen delivery and fluid responsiveness. This is clearly important, but it's possible that our focus on easily... read more
Effect of an ICU Diary on PTSD Symptoms Among Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilation
Keeping a diary for patients while they are in the intensive care unit (ICU) might reduce their posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Among 657 patients who were randomized completed the trial. At 3 months, significant... read more
What Happens After a Positive Screen for Depression and PTSD in the Outpatient Burn Clinic?
Multiple reports have demonstrated a wide prevalence of both depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within 1 year of burn injury. The purpose of this study is to determine outcomes of burn patients after a positive... read more
Sedatives in Neurocritical Care
Extrapolating the findings from studies in the general ICU population suggests to reserve deep continuous sedation in the neuro-ICU for specific indications. Although an improved understanding of cerebral physiological changes... read more
Low-value Clinical Practices in Acute Injury Care
This study fills a major knowledge gap on medical procedure overuse in acute injury care. Results will inform research priorities and the development of metrics to measure overuse. This knowledge will provide a solid basis... read more
Telehealth and Patient Outcomes
Ranjit Deshpande, MD, and Donna Lee Armaignac, PhD, APRN, CCNS, CCRN, discuss maximizing positive patient care outcomes through telemedicine. Dr. Armaignac presented on this topic at the Society's 48th Critical Care Congress.... read more
Phenotyping: Need to Identify Subgroups of ARDS Patients
The consensus definitions of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) mainly rely on feasible clinical criteria, which help to group patients together for inclusion in clinical trials and for clinical management. This generates... read more
Well: Healing Our Beautiful, Broken World from a Hospital in West Africa
Sarah Thebarge, a Yale-trained physician assistant, nearly died of breast cancer at age twenty-seven, but that did not end her deeply felt spiritual calling to medical missions in Africa. Risking her own health, she moved... read more
Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters in the ICU
A retrospective study of adult medical patients in 52 hospitals. 27,289 patients with peripherally inserted central catheters placed during hospitalization. Peripherally inserted central catheter use in the ICU is highly... read more
Acute Kidney Injury in Postoperative Shock
Is hyperoncotic albumin administration an unrecognized resuscitation risk factor? The use of hyperoncotic albumin (HA) for shock resuscitation is controversial given concerns about its cost, effectiveness, and potential for... read more
Holographic Telepresence – Taking Trauma Care to the Next Level
Advancing technology is all set to bring in a new era of highly-realistic holographic Telepresence. Throughout the history of science fiction and video gaming, we've seen holograms come in various shapes and sizes. Today,... read more
ICU Patients May Understand Verbal Commands After Acute Brain Injury
A New England Journal of Medicine study shows 1 in 6 clinically unresponsive ICU patients show electroencephalography (EEG) patterns of brain activity when spoken to soon after acute brain injury. A dissociation between the... read more
Recognizing Acute Delirium as Part of Your Routine
The screening tool (RADAR) proved to be efficient, reliable, sensitive and very well accepted by nursing staff. Consequently, it becomes an appropriate new option for delirium screening among older adults, with or without... read more
Critical Illness and Cardiac Dysfunction in Anthracycline-Exposed Pediatric Oncology Patients
Children with cancer who received anthracyclines, especially at higher doses, and who develop cardiac dysfunction are at higher risk of critical illness, have higher rates of multiple organ dysfunction and higher rates of... read more
