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
Optimizing Patient and Family Education Resources for the ICU
Offering stronger patient and family education tools in the ICU will ease patient and caregiver fears and make them more comfortable with the care setting. An integrated, centralized, and digital platform is best suited for... read more
The Psychological Impact of Intensive Care
A period in intensive care is known to negatively affect patients' long term physical, cognitive and psychiatric health, in what's known as post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). Researchers from the University of Oxford sought... read more
50 States Ranked by Amount of Active Nurses
California contains the most professionally active registered nurses in the U.S. with 337,738 RNs, according to a ranking from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The ranking is based on October 2018 data compiled by Redi-Data... read more
Reassessing the death risk related to probiotics in critically ill patients
Probiotics prove to be a very useful weapon to reduce infections in critically ill patients, although strong recommendation in support of their use cannot be drawn yet. Reassessing the risk ratio with the meta-analytic software... read more
The Year They Tried to Kill Me: Surviving a Surgical Internship… Even If the Patients Don’t
Not exactly the warm welcome I hoped for. But I was just a naive Wisconsin boy, fresh out of medical school and new to Oakland, California. I chose Highland Hospital for my surgical internship: an entire year filled with... read more
Fluid Management in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
In this video, Dr. Stacey Valentine discusses fluid management in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), including the evidence supporting fluid-restrictive strategies. Both acute lung injury and its more severe form,... read more
Humanizing the ICU
In the midst of trying to correct organ failures, clinicians may neglect to carefully consider what the patient is experiencing: to be on the brink of death, be unable to speak, be stripped naked, have strangers enter the... read more
Partial Pressure of Oxygen and Neurological Outcome in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients
Following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), patients regularly suffer from post cardiac arrest syndrome including symptoms of anoxic brain injury and reperfusion-related damage. Hyperoxemia or hypoxemia exposure occurred... read more
Association of Antibiotic Treatment with Outcomes in Patients Hospitalized for an Asthma Exacerbation Treated with Systemic Corticosteroids
Antibiotic therapy may be associated with a longer hospital length of stay, higher hospital cost, and similar risk of treatment failure. These results highlight the need to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing among... read more
Mimics of Sepsis: What do ED Physicians Need to Know?
SIRS and sepsis are common clinical entities. A wide range of estimates for prevalence exists, with 300 to 1000 cases per 100,000 persons per year. Once a septic patient is admitted, more than half will require at least step... read more
Less or More Hemodynamic Monitoring in Critically Ill Patients
The use of echocardiography should be initially encouraged in patients with shock to identify the type of shock and to select the most appropriate therapy. The use of more invasive hemodynamic monitoring techniques should... read more
Nutrition Support for the Critically Ill
This text provides a review of the current knowledge in both the mechanics of nourishing the critically ill and the metabolic and immunological roles nutrients play. In-depth chapters discuss disease-related malnutrition... read more
Systematic Review of the Effects of ICU Noise on Sleep of Healthy Subjects and the Critically Ill
ICU patients exhibit disturbed sleeping patterns, often attributed to environmental noise, although the relative contribution of noise compared to other potentially disrupting factors is often debated. We therefore systematically... read more
ICU RN Job Dissatisfaction, Burnout Linked to Moral Distress
Job satisfaction and practice environment are associated with moral distress among critical care nurses, according to a study published online Jan. 3 in the American Journal of Critical Care. The researchers found that 56... read more
Infectious Diseases in the Pediatric ICU
Infants and children are at high risk of acquiring infections and this is most critical on the pediatric intensive care unit, as these infections have serious effects on mortality. Infectious Diseases in the Pediatric Intensive... read more
Metabolic Sepsis Resuscitation
There are roughly two strategies for adjusting the intensity of treatment: Titrated strategy: Treatment intensity is adjusted to match the severity of the disease. Escalation-deescalation strategy: Treatment intensity is... read more
Host Genetic Variants in Sepsis Risk
Published data revealed that host genetic variants have a substantial influence on sepsis susceptibility. However, the results have been inconsistent. We aimed to systematically review the published studies and quantitatively... read more
Score for Predicting Ventilator Weaning Duration in Patients With Tracheostomies
A score derived from ventilator settings may help clinicians predict the timing of ventilator liberation in patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. Of 372 patients, 72% were liberated from mechanical ventilation.... read more
A Rare Group of White Blood Cells May Be the Secret to Prevent Sepsis
Basophils are evolutionarily conserved in vertebrates, despite their small numbers and short life span, suggesting that they have beneficial roles in maintaining health. However, these roles are not fully defined. Here we... read more
A Framework for Increasing Trust Between Patients and the Organizations That Care for Them
Trust matters in health care. It makes patients feel less vulnerable, clinicians feel more effective, and reduces the imbalances of information by improving the flow of information. Trust is so fundamental to the patient-physician... read more
Poor Hospital Design Has an Impact on Staff, Patients, and Healthcare
Many hospitals in which I have worked have struggled with finances over the last 5 years. There has often been a ban on capital investment on new physical infrastructure projects even extended to repairs in some circumstances.... read more
