RRT Board Exam: Dominate the Hemodynamic and ECG Portion of the Respiratory Therapy Board Exam
Our RRT Board exam series helps you study smarter, not harder. Instead of giving you information overload, we focus solely on the most recent NBRC TMC and clinical simulation exam matrix. Start feeling more confident and... read more
Fever Control in Critically Ill Adults
One potential way to protect patients from the physiological demands that are a consequence of fever is to aim to prevent fever and to treat it assiduously when it occurs. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that more... read more
Optimizing Hemodynamic Support in Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock, An Issue of Critical Care Clinics
Guest Editor Dane Nichols, MD, has assembled a panel of experts focusing on Hemodynamic Support in Septic Shock. Topics include: Oxygen Delivery and Consumption: A Macro-Circulatory Perspective; Mean Arterial Pressure: Therapeutic... read more
Hospital Elder Life Program: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Effectiveness
The Hospital Elder Life Program is effective in reducing incidence of delirium and rate of falls, with a trend toward decreasing length of stay and preventing institutionalization. With ongoing efforts in continuous program... read more
ICU Utilization for Patients With Acute Exacerbation of COPD Receiving Noninvasive Ventilation
There is wide variability in the rate of ICU utilization for noninvasive ventilation across hospitals. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients receiving noninvasive ventilation had similar in-hospital mortality... read more
Why Do Bleeding Trauma Patients Die?
It is important that we recognize that we have seen a reduction in the number of deaths from trauma. That's a great thing of course, but we should not be complacent. It's also worth looking at where and how patients die.... read more
Neuro ICU Nurse Tips for Newbies
This episode discusses a few diseases processes that are typically seen by the neuro ICU nurse as well as a neuro floor. We chat about subdural hematomas, epidural hematomas, seizures, brain tumors, and diffuse axonal injury.... read more
Did This Health Care Policy Do Harm?
A well-intentioned program created by the Affordable Care Act may have led to patient deaths. No patient leaves the hospital hoping to return soon. But a decade ago, one in five Medicare patients who were hospitalized for... read more
DeepSOFA: A Continuous Acuity Score for Critically Ill Patients using Clinically Interpretable Deep Learning
Traditional methods for assessing illness severity and predicting in-hospital mortality among critically ill patients require time-consuming, error-prone calculations using static variable thresholds. These methods do not... read more
Number Needed to Treat
Effectively communicating clinical trial results to patients and clinicians is a requirement for appropriate application in clinical practice. In a recent issue of JAMA, Zhao et al1 reported the results from a randomized... read more
UV Light Reduces Hospital-acquired Infections
A new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) shows that ultraviolet (UV) disinfection technology, called PurpleSun, eliminates up to 97.7 percent of pathogens in the operating room (OR). Using... read more
Prehospital Intravenous Fentanyl Administered by Ambulance Personnel
Prehospital acute pain is a frequent symptom that is often inadequately managed. The concerns of opioid induced side effects are well-founded. To ensure patient safety, ambulance personnel are therefore provided with treatment... read more
Catheter-Directed Therapy for PE Built on Fallacy
Tissue plasminogen activator has a notoriously checkered past within emergency medicine, and its controversial use continues with the advent of targeted therapy for pulmonary embolism. Catheter-directed administration of... read more
Flu Has Sickened More Than 13 Million This Season
The CDC estimates that there have been 13.2 million to 15.2 million flu illnesses this season. The CDC estimates there have been 6.2 million to 7.2 million flu medical visits and 155,000 to 186,000 flu hospitalizations this... read more
Effect of high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy in adults with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure
Conflicting recommendations exist on whether high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen therapy should be administered to adult patients in critical care with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. We performed a meta-analysis of... read more
Study Shows How Bacteria Spread from Sink Drainpipes to Patients
Many recent reports have found multidrug resistant bacteria living in hospital sink drainpipes, putting them in close proximity to vulnerable patients. But how the bacteria find their way out of the drains, and into patients... read more
Reducing Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections in the ICU
Patients in the ICU are at higher risk for catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) due to more frequent use of catheters and lower threshold for obtaining urine cultures. This review provides a summary of CAUTI... read more
ICU May Be Overused for Some COPD, Acute MI, HF Patients
For patients with COPD, heart failure and myocardial infarction, who are not critically ill, a stay in the ICU may be no more beneficial than staying on a ward, according to an analysis just published in the Annals of the... read more
Medicating patients during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which can support gas exchange or hemodynamics in patients with severe respiratory or cardiac failure, has demonstrated considerable evolution over the last decade [1], with a steady... read more
The effects of performance status one week before hospital admission on the outcomes of critically ill patients
PS impairment was associated with worse outcomes independently of other markers of chronic health status, particularly for patients in the medium range of severity of illness. PS impairment was moderate in 17.3 % and severe... read more
Hypertriglyceridemic pancreatitis: Can we defuse the bomb?
Hypertriglyceridemia causes ~9% of pancreatitis, the third most common cause after alcohol and gallstones. It is a risk factor for severe pancreatitis, making it more frequent among ICU patients with pancreatitis. I see... read more
Ultrasound-guided Pleural Effusion Drainage With a Small Catheter Using the Single-step Trocar or Modified Seldinger Technique
Ultrasound-guided pleural effusion drainage by catheter insertion is a safe and effective procedure. The success rate is low when the effusion is loculated and septated. Both the trocar and the modified Seldinger techniques... read more
