Maryland emergency doctors find new life-saving use in old machine

A little used machine designed to detox people who overdose on Tylenol and other medications found another use. Doctors at Shock Trauma used it to save a teenage gunshot victim and then a college football player and an amateur... read more

Prehabilitation: Preparing Patients for Surgery

The impact of surgery leads to significant homeostatic disturbance.1 The surgical stress response is characterised by catabolism and increased oxygen demand. The extent and duration of the stress response is proportionate... read more

Sepsis – Explained in 3 Minutes

Sepsis is an emergency, striking about 30 million people every year, killing 6 to 9 million of them. Learn what sepsis is, and how to identify and treat it in this 3-min video. Please share with your loved ones - it could... read more

Can Early Rehabilitation on the General Ward After an ICU Stay Reduce Hospital Length of Stay in Survivors of Critical Illness?

An early rehabilitation program in survivors of critical illness led to an earlier discharge from the hospital, improved functional recovery, and was also cost-effective and safe. In the per-protocol analysis, length of... read more

Steroids for severe CAP. Should I?

Steroids. I always have mixed feelings about them. It's a Love & Hate relationship inside my head. On one hand I cannot stand those who claim steroids are the critical care's Holy Grail. Steroids for sepsis, ARDS, trauma,... read more

A comparison of two insulin infusion protocols in the ICU by continuous glucose monitoring

The Yale protocol provided better average glycemia, more time spent in normoglycemia, less time in hypoglycemia, and less glycemic variability than the Leuven protocol, but was not independently associated with strict glycemic... read more

Hypertension and Prehypertension Underdiagnosed, Undertreated in U.S. Children

Hypertension and prehypertension in children often go undiagnosed, according to a new study published in Pediatrics. The study focused on children with abnormal blood pressures across the United States.... read more

Metformin and Aspirin Potential Key in Treating Inflammatory Diseases

Ingredient in aspirin combined with popular diabetes drug can turn off faulty protein that plays a key role in inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. ... read more

Drug does not significantly reduce duration of mechanical ventilation for COPD patients

Among mechanically ventilated patients with COPD, administration of the respiratory stimulant acetazolamide did not significantly reduce the duration of invasive mechanical ventilation.... read more

The Ability of ICU Physicians to Estimate Long-Term Prognosis in Survivors of Critical Illness

Prognoses estimated by physicians incorrectly predicted long-term survival and HRQoL in one-third of ICU survivors. Moreover, inaccurate prognoses were generally the result of overoptimistic expectations of outcome. Among... read more

Conscious Sedation in TAVR Linked to Lower Mortality and Shorter Hospital Stays

The study, which captured approximately 90% of all patients who underwent TAVR in the United States during the study period, adds to a limited evidence base on the use of conscious sedation in this setting. Among those treated... read more

Association Between mRNA Expression of CD74 and IL10 and Risk of ICU-acquired Infections

Intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired infections (IAI) result in increased hospital and ICU stay, costs and mortality. To date, no biomarker has shown sufficient evidence and ease of application in clinical routine for the identification... read more

Sepsis National Hospital Inpatient Quality Measure

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services adopted the Early Management Bundle, Severe Sepsis/Septic Shock (SEP-1) performance measure to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program in July 2015 to help address the... read more

Variation in Monitoring and Treatment Policies for Intracranial Hypertension in TBI

Substantial variation was found regarding monitoring and treatment policies in patients with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and intracranial hypertension. The results of this survey indicate a lack of consensus between European... read more

Patient Safety Collaborative Impact on Hospital-Acquired Harm

Improving patient safety often involves multifaceted interventions intended to change complex workflows. This prospective cohort study examined whether a collaborative improvement initiative across 33 pediatric hospitals... read more

Raising Sepsis Awareness

Most recent parody created by ILAS (Brazil) aimed at health professionals with English subtitles. Share this video with your multidisciplinary teams because together we can overcome sepsis.... read more

Nutrition in Surgery and Critical Care

DCRI Perioperative Nutrition focuses on the study of hospital-based treatments to improve preparation and recovery from surgery, major illness, and critical care. We put real science into improving patients' lives with interventions... read more

The Overlaps of Asthma or COPD with OSA

Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are the most common respiratory disorders worldwide. Given demographic and environmental changes, prevalence for each is likely to increase. Some... read more

Antibiotic Prescription Fill Rates Declining

Since 2010, antibiotic prescription rates in the U.S. have been declining among the commercially insured population, falling 9 percent during this period. In this report, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, in partnership... read more

Sepsis Awareness Month

September is Sepsis Awareness month. To mark the occasion we invited Marijke Vroomen Durning, Director of Content at Sepsis Alliance, to tell us more about Sepsis, the organization’s work, and the importance of raising... read more

Post-ICU Psychological Morbidity in Very Long ICU Stay Patients with ARDS and Delirium

Delirium was associated with memory impairment and PTSS-14 scores suggestive of PTSD, but not illness severity. 181 subjects were included. Illness severity did not correlate with delirium duration. On logistic regression,... read more

Biomarkers in AKI: That’s All the Story?

We would like to add to the recent editorial by McMahon on biomarkers of acute kidney injury (AKI), with a specific focus on biomarkers in the clinical setting of cardiac surgery-associated AKI (CSA-AKI). We agree with McMahon... read more