Stories Category: Intensive Care
Jimmy Kimmel Reveals Details of His Son’s Birth & Heart Disease
Jimmy and his wife Molly welcomed their second child together, William "Billy" Kimmel. At three days old, Billy had successful open heart surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and is now home with his family.... read more
Why Does Conflict of Interest Matter?
In this Viewpoint, the former president of the Institute of Medicine discusses the importance of conflicts of interest to the integrity of the medical profession, and the importance of policies to manage conflicts of interest... read more
Visual Aids for Infectious Disease Diagnoses
Learning the hallmarks of proper diagnosis requires using all of our senses: hearing, to listen to a patient’s symptoms; touch, to probe an infection site; and occasionally smell, to qualitatively determine infection characteristics... read more
Eltrombopag Added to Standard Immunosuppression for Aplastic Anemia
Acquired aplastic anemia results from immune-mediated destruction of bone marrow. Immunosuppressive therapies are effective, but reduced numbers of residual stem cells may limit their efficacy. In patients with aplastic anemia... read more
A Trauma Nurse Reflects On Compassion Fatigue
Kristin Laurel, a flight nurse from Waconia, Minn., has worked in trauma units for over two decades. The daily exposure to distressing situations can sometimes result in compassion fatigue. That burnout is what Laurel says... read more
Both Positive and Negative Fluid Balance May Be Associated With Reduced Long-Term Survival in the Critically Ill
Among critically ill patients with acute kidney injury, exposure to positive fluid balance, compared with negative fluid balance, has been associated with mortality and impaired renal recovery. However, it is unclear whether... read more
Antimicrobial Stewardship and Appropriate Antimicrobial Prescribing in Hospitals
This study examines whether an antimicrobial stewardship approach grounded in behavioral theory and focusing on preserving prescriber autonomy and participation is associated with appropriateness of antimicrobial prescribing... read more
PaCO2 Equation
I've previously written about the alveolar gas equation and oxygen delivery equation, both of which deal with the physiologic process of oxygenation. Now I want to discuss the important relationship between alveolar... read more
New Ways for Research Findings to Reach More People
When it comes to sharing new research findings with the world, Twitter has emerged as a key tool for scientists - and for the journals where they publish their findings. But a new study shows a way for that research to reach... read more
Implications of Prevalent Noncardiac Disease in the Cardiac ICU
Half of >1000 patients of admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit (ICU) at a major tertiary-care center over about 1 year also had acute respiratory failure, acute kidney injury, or sepsis. Those with lung or kidney... read more
Strategies for Optimizing Diagnostic Predictive Value of Clostridium difficile
Because nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) do not distinguish Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and asymptomatic C. difficile carriage, the diagnostic predictive value of NAATs is limited when used in patients with... read more
New Study: Economic Cost to Surviving ARDS
Research published today in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine sheds light on the economic toll on survivors of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Nearly 50% of survivors who worked before they... read more
Prevalence of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria among nursing home residents
Multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) are associated with an increasing proportion of infections among nursing home (NH) residents. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to critically... read more
Viral coinfection is shaped by host ecology and virus-virus interactions across diverse microbial taxa and environments
Infection of more than one virus in a host, coinfection, is common across taxa and environments. Viral coinfection can enable genetic exchange, alter the dynamics of infections, and change the course of viral evolution. Yet,... read more
Michael Lewis’ The Undoing Project: How do ER surgeons avoid dumb, deadly mistakes? Ask their doctor
In an excerpt from his new book Michael Lewis examines a Toronto doctor who helps trauma surgeons avoid errors in judgment when life and death are on the line. Doctors tended to see only what they were trained to see: That... read more
I was confident in my patient’s care. Then my senior doctor overruled me
When a resident and an attending physician disagree, the attending has the right to overrule the resident. But both should talk openly about the issue. During one 28-hour call shift, I took care of a critically ill man in... read more
Serial Procalcitonin Predicts Mortality in Severe Sepsis Patients
Objectives: To prospectively validate that the inability to decrease procalcitonin levels by more than 80% between baseline and day 4 is associated with increased 28-day all-cause mortality in a large sepsis patient population... read more
