Is this critically ill patient elderly or too old?
Life expectancy is increasing in industrialized countries. It is forecast that in the European Union 24.4 million people will be older than 85 years in 2040, more than doubling from the 10.4 million seen in 2010. In parallel,... read more
Surgeons Are Using Social Media to Share and Learn New Skills
Learning from others' experiences is an important aspect of professional development in surgery. That’s why academic surgical departments across the globe hold weekly Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) conferences that gather... read more
Platelets and Multi-Organ Failure in Sepsis
Platelets have received increasing attention for their role in the pathophysiology of infectious disease, inflammation, and immunity. In sepsis, a low platelet count is a well-known biomarker for disease severity and more... read more
Understanding Adrenal Crisis
Approximately 5–17 cases of adrenal crisis (AC) occur per 100 patient years in patients with primary or secondary adrenal insufficiency (AI). The mortality rate is estimated to be between 0.5% and 2%. Norwegian data indicate... read more
Alarm Fatigue in ICU Addressed in Two Studies
Alarm fatigue within the intensive care unit (ICU) can negatively impact patient safety and lead to life-threatening events. Researchers from Harlem Hospital and Maimonides Medical Center aimed to identify solutions fight... read more
Bedside Chest Radiographs in the ICU – DRw vs. CR
Critical care chest radiography with a portable wireless direct radiography (DRw) system can provide similar or superior information compared to a computed radiography (CR) system regarding clinically significant findings... read more
The Role of Physiotherapy in Enhanced Recovery After Surgery in the ICU
Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is an evidence-based, multimodal approach to optimising patient outcomes following surgery. The role of physiotherapy within ERAS and intensive care units (ICU) is important. Patients... read more
When Antibiotic Treatment Fails
What to do when antimicrobial treatment fails and when and how to define it? These are three very common questions arising when clinicians use antibiotics. Categorization of responders and non-responders early in the course... read more
Ultrasound-guided Mechanical Ventilation
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is now a tool used worldwide, integrating clinical assessment of the critically ill. In this review, we focus on lung, diaphragm and cardiac ultrasound in the management of the mechanically... read more
Translational Evidence for Two Distinct Patterns of Neuroaxonal Injury in Sepsis
Ischemic and diffuse neuroaxonal injury to the brain in experimental sepsis, human postmortem brains, and in vivo MRI suggest these two distinct lesion types to be relevant. Future studies should be focused on body fluid... read more
Delirium in Hospitalized Older Adults
Delirium, an acute confusional state, is common among hospitalized elders and is associated with poor outcomes. All patients with delirium should be evaluated for reversible causes. Behavioral disturbances should be managed... read more
Barriers to Delirium Assessment in the ICU
Many barriers exist to prevent effective assessment and management of delirium, but several of these are due to a lack of understanding or unfamiliarity with the condition and the assessment tools as well as lack of medical... read more
Oral Antibiotics Preferred for Pediatric Pneumonia
Children with complicated pneumonia should be discharged from the hospital with oral instead of intravenous (IV) antibiotics when possible, according to a new study. The results showed no significant differences in treatment... read more
Severe AKI in Young ICU Patients Predicts Higher Mortality
Acute kidney injury (AKI) among critically ill children and young adults is common and is associated with higher mortality risk and other poor outcomes The condition also is associated with greater use of renal-replacement... read more
Aerosol Delivery During Invasive Mechanical Ventilation
Lung deposition was lower than 20% of nominal dose delivered with nebulizers and mostly occurred in proximal airways. Further studies are needed to link substantial concentrations of antibiotics in infected pulmonary fluids... read more
Can this patient be safely weaned from RRT?
The timing of initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the critically ill with acute kidney injury (AKI) has been widely studied and discussed in detail recently. However, there is limited information and few recommendations... read more
Active Noise Control Headphones to Reduce Patient’s Exposure to ICU Noise
The use of active noise cancellation, as delivered by noise-cancelling headphones, is associated with a significant reduction in noise exposure in our model of noise exposure in a cardiac ICU. This is the first study to look... read more
