The Glutamine Debate in Surgery and Critical Care

The Glutamine Debate in Surgery and Critical Care

Three recent meta-analyses have confirmed traditional glutamine (GLN)-supplemented (or "GLN-Complemented" – providing GLN for completeness of amino acid content) TPN is safe, reduces mortality and improves outcome in surgical... read more

Prevalence and outcome of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia diagnosed under veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Prevalence and outcome of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia diagnosed under veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Prevalence of HIT among patients under VA‑ECMO is extremely low at 0.36% with an associated mortality rate of 33.3%, which appears to be in the same range as that observed in patients treated with VA‑ECMO without HIT.... read more

Defining Sepsis on the Wards

Defining Sepsis on the Wards

The aim of this study is to look at the prevalence (commonness) of sepsis across acute hospitals (hospitals with an emergency department) across Wales using the currently used and new definitions of sepsis. Sepsis is a major... read more

Psychological and Cognitive Impact of Critical Illness

Psychological and Cognitive Impact of Critical Illness

Hot off the presses. Concise book on PICS, PICS-F and FICUS. Neuropsychiatric problems after critical illness are receiving increasing attention, particularly in the critical care medicine literature, but mental health and... read more

Impact of Hypophosphatemia on Outcome of Patients in ICU

Impact of Hypophosphatemia on Outcome of Patients in ICU

Hypophosphatemia at admission is an independent risk factor for 28-day mortality in general ICU patients. The cohort included 946 patients with a median phosphate concentration of 0.77 mmol/L. Patients with hypophosphatemia... read more

Hypernatremia & Dehydration in the ICU

Hypernatremia & Dehydration in the ICU

Hypernatremia is very common in the ICU. It often develops during ICU admission due to inadequate free water administration. Hypernatremia is not benign, it causes profound thirst, particularly among intubated patients, this... read more

Who May Benefit Most From Future Vitamin D Intervention Trials

High-dose vitamin D3 supplementation was associated with a reduction of 28-day mortality in a mixed population of critically ill adults with vitamin D deficiency when excluding patients who died or were discharged within... read more

Validation and Critical Evaluation of the Effective Arterial Elastance in Critically Ill Patients

Validation and Critical Evaluation of the Effective Arterial Elastance in Critically Ill Patients

In critically ill patients, effective arterial elastance may be reliably estimated at bedside. We support the use of this validated estimate of effective arterial elastance when coupled with an index of left ventricular contractility... read more

Acute Kidney Injury in Cirrhosis

Acute Kidney Injury in Cirrhosis

Novel biomarkers may assist in identification of acute tubular necrosis and persistent/severe acute kidney injury (AKI). Norepinephrine has been suggested to be inferior to terlipressin, with additional research required.... read more

What influences critical care doctors in withdrawing life support for patients with brain injury?

Decisions to withdraw life support treatments in critically ill patients with severe brain injury are complicated, are based on many factors, and are usually made by critical care physicians and families in the intensive... read more

Withholding or Withdrawing of Life-sustaining Therapy in Older Adults Admitted to the ICU

The most important patient variables associated with the instigation of Life-sustaining Therapy (LST) limitation were acute admission, frailty, age, admission SOFA score and country. LST limitation was identified in 1356/5021... read more

Critical Care Study Guide: Text and Review

Critical Care Study Guide: Text and Review

Critical care medicine is a dynamic and exciting arena where complex pathophysiologic states require extensive knowledge and up-to-date clinical information. An extensive knowledge of basic pathophysiology, as well as awareness... read more

Impact of Weekly Case-based Tele-education on Quality of Care in a Limited Resource Medical ICU

Impact of Weekly Case-based Tele-education on Quality of Care in a Limited Resource Medical ICU

Limited critical care subspecialty training and experience is available in many low- and middle-income countries, creating barriers to the delivery of evidence-based critical care. We hypothesized that a structured tele-education... read more

Artificial Liver Support in Acute and Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure

Artificial Liver Support in Acute and Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure

Liver support systems such as MARS and TPE may temporarily improve systemic hemodynamics and the degree of encephalopathy. However, TPE is the only procedure that improves survival in patients with ALF. The role of TPE in... read more