Tracheal Intubation in Critically Ill Patients

We performed a systematic review of randomized controlled studies evaluating any drug, technique or device aimed at improving the success rate or safety of tracheal intubation in the critically ill. We identified 22 trials... read more

Distributions and Behavior of Vital Signs in Critically Ill Children by Admission Diagnosis

This is the first study reporting distributions of continuously measured physiologic variables and trends in their behavior according to admission diagnosis in critically ill children. Differences detected between and within... read more

Noninvasive Ventilation in Hypercapnic COPD

Recently, Murphy and colleagues reported findings from a clinical trial designed to evaluate the effect of home noninvasive ventilation (NIV) with oxygen on time to readmission or death in patients with persistent hypercapnia... read more

R.E.B.E.L. EM – Fluid Responsiveness and the Six Guiding Principles of Fluid Resuscitation

Fluid resuscitation is a crucial aspect of emergency and critical care. Since the advent of the concept of early goal-directed therapy, we have placed a huge emphasis on aggressive fluid resuscitation in patients with severe... read more

REPROVE: Ceftazidime-avibactam Noninferior to Meropenem for Nosocomial Pneumonia

Ceftazidime-avibactam was noninferior to meropenem for nosocomial pneumonia including ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) from gram-negative organisms, results from the REPROVE trial demonstrated. Nosocomial or hospital-acquired... read more

Is Overall Mortality the Right Composite Endpoint in Clinical Trials of ARDS?

Most deaths in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients are not directly related to lung damage but to extrapulmonary multisystem organ failure. It would be challenging to prove that specific lung-directed therapies... read more

Persistence of Delirium after Cessation of Sedatives and Analgesics and Impact on Clinical Outcomes in Critically Ill Patients

As delirium is a common manifestation in critically ill patients and is associated with worse clinical outcomes, we sought to characterize the reversibility of delirium after discontinuation of sedation and to determine whether... read more

Conceptualizing Post Intensive Care Syndrome in Children

Post Intensive Care Syndrome in pediatrics (PICS-p) will help illuminate the phenomena of surviving childhood critical illness and guide outcomes measurement in the field. Empirical studies are now required to validate and... read more

The Sound of Air: Point-of-Care Lung Ultrasound in Perioperative Medicine

Lung ultrasound (LUS) has emerged as an effective and accurate goal-directed diagnostic tool that can be applied in real time for the bedside assessment of patients with respiratory symptoms and signs. Lung ultrasound has... read more

Music as Therapy in the ICU

Music has been shown to reduce respiratory, cardiac and blood pressure frequencies in response to the reduction of stress hormones. In a randomized clinical trial, it was shown to reduce anxiety and sedation doses/intervals... read more

Early Mobility in Critically Ill Patients

Kyle Enfield, MD, speaks with Wes Ely, MD, MPH, about his talk presented at the Multiprofessional Critical Care Review: Adult course in Rosemont, Illinois entitled, "Early Mobility in Critically Ill Patients: More to Come."... read more

Cognitive Development One Year After Infantile Critical Pertussis

Infants who survive critical pertussis often have neurodevelopmental deficits. These infants may benefit from routine neurodevelopmental screening. Of 196 eligible patients, 111 (57%) completed the Mullen Scales of Early... read more

Early Hemorrhage Control and Management of Trauma-induced Coagulopathy

Trauma resuscitation should focus on early goal-directed therapy with use of viscoelastic hemostatic assays while initially applying a ratio 1:1:1 driven transfusion therapy (with red blood cells, plasma and platelets) in... read more

Long-Term Cognitive Impairment after Hospitalization for Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Recent studies suggest older patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia are at risk for new-onset cognitive impairment. The characteristics of long-term cognitive impairment after pneumonia, however, have not... read more

Recovery After Critical Illness: Putting the Puzzle Together

In this review, we seek to highlight how critical illness and critical care affect longer-term outcomes, to underline the contribution of ICU delirium to cognitive dysfunction several months after ICU discharge, to give new... read more

The Effects of Antibiotic Cycling and Mixing on Antibiotic Resistance in ICU

Whether antibiotic rotation strategies reduce prevalence of antibiotic-resistant, Gram-negative bacteria in intensive care units (ICUs) has not been accurately established. We aimed to assess whether cycling of antibiotics... read more

Long-term Outcomes Associated With Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator in Adults With CKD

In a large, contemporary, noninterventional study of community-based patients with heart failure and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), ICD placement was not significantly associated with improved survival but was associated with... read more

Polymyxin B‑immobilised Hemoperfusion and Mortality in Critically Ill Patients with Sepsis/Septic Shock

Sepsis and septic shock originate from a dysregulated immune response to pathogens and cause millions of deaths worldwide. Endotoxin, a principal component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, is a potent trigger... read more

Long-term Recovery Following Critical Illness in an Australian Cohort

Almost all data on 5-year outcomes for critical care survivors come from North America and Europe. The aim of this study was to investigate long-term mortality, physical function, psychological outcomes and health-related... read more

Adjuvant Therapies in Critical Care: Music Therapy

Emerging from the perioperative and oncology fields, music therapy (MT) and patient-directed music interventions (PDMI) have recently garnered interest in the area of critical care. The main goal of these music-based adjuvant... read more

Receiving a Letter of Condolence After Loss of a Loved One in the ICU

This study describes the benefits of receiving a letter of condolence; mainly, it humanizes the medical institution (feeling of support, confirmation of the role played by the relative, supplemental information). However,... read more

Sepsis Incidence: A Population-Based Study

The incidence of sepsis with organ dysfunction is higher than most previous estimates independent of definition. The inclusion of all inpatients started on intravenous antibiotic treatment of sepsis in a population makes... read more