Stories Category: Intensive Care
Rescue Therapy for Severe COVID-19 Associated ARDS with tPA
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented stresses on modern medical systems, overwhelming the resource infrastructure in numerous countries while presenting a unique series of pathophysiologic clinical findings. Thrombotic... read more
Tube Thoracostomy during the COVID-19 Pandemic
This document provides guidance for trauma and acute care surgeons surrounding the placement, management and removal of chest tubes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tube thoracostomy for a traumatic hemothorax or pneumothorax... read more
COVID-19: 10 Things I Wished I’d Known Some Months Ago
The COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and spreading, affecting individuals in over 200 countries now. While COVID-19-related articles are being published every day, including guidelines of optimal clinical management, there are... read more
An Evidence-Based Approach to Pressors in Shock
The evaluation and treatment of patients with cardiovascular shock is a cornerstone of emergency care. Unfortunately, the literature behind the use of vasoactive medications in cardiovascular shock is inconsistent. A Cochrane... read more
Translational simulation for rapid transformation of health services, using the example of the COVID-19 pandemic preparation
Healthcare simulation has significant potential for helping health services to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Rapid changes to care pathways and processes needed for protection of staff and patients may be facilitated by... read more
Thousands Who Got COVID-19 in March Are Still Sick
COVID-19 has existed for less than six months, and it is easy to forget how little we know about it. The standard view is that a minority of infected people, who are typically elderly or have preexisting health problems,... read more
COVID-19 Patients with ARDS Face Significant Financial Effects in Recovery
Long hospitalizations lead to large medical bills, with serious physical and emotional consequences for those recovering from critical illness. It begins with shortness of breath. And for approximately one-third of patients,... read more
WHO Resumes Hydroxychloroquine Study for COVID-19
The World Health Organization is resuming a clinical trial exploring whether the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine can effectively treat COVID-19, after pausing enrollment in the study to review safety concerns about the drug. The... read more
The Perils of Premature Phenotyping in COVID-19
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses an unprecedented global healthcare challenge. Severe novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pneumonia frequently causes hypoxemic respiratory failure, manifesting... read more
Blood Vessel Attack Could Trigger Coronavirus’ Fatal Second Phase
Frank Ruschitzka told his pathologist to be ready before the first COVID-19 patient died. In early March, Ruschitzka, who leads the cardiology department at University Hospital Zürich, noticed that patients with the disease... read more
What’s Next for EDs in the COVID-19 Pandemic?
As of late May, most countries have falling numbers of new cases of COVID-19 and are at various stages of easing lockdown orders. This seems a good time to look back on the pandemic experience so far and at what lessons we... read more
Functional Disability 5 Years After ARDS
Exercise limitation, physical and psychological sequelae, decreased physical quality of life, and increased costs and use of health care services are important legacies of severe lung injury. At 5 years, the median 6-minute... read more
What COVID-19 Has Taught Me
A personal narrative of Adrian Wong’s experience while battling COVID-19 at King's College Hospital. These are the author's personal opinions and do not represent the views of the institution and professional societies... read more
Near Death in the ICU
A phenomenal collection of medical patient accounts of encounters with the mysterious during severe illness and life-threatening injury from the voice of the physician who took care of them. Both touching and thought-provoking,... read more
Are Phenotypes a Magic Bullet for Sepsis?
There's a constant battle in medicine between practice styles—standardization and customization. Standardization is order sets and doing the same thing for every patient every time because it (hopefully) delivers better... read more
Corticosteroids for Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients with Cytokine Release Syndrome
Approximately 5% of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients will require admission to an intensive care unit (ICU). Among these patients, the most severe cases may be mediated by a late-onset systemic inflammatory response... read more
Prolonged Prone Position Ventilation for SARS-CoV-2 Patients is Feasible and Effective
Recently, novel coronavirus 2019 (nCOV-19) is spreading all around the world causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) requiring mechanical ventilation in about 5% of infected people. Prone position ventilation... read more
