Tag: ICU

Family Responses to Prognostic Information in Chronic Critical Illness

Prognostic disclosure by skilled clinician communicators evokes a repertoire of responses from surrogates for the chronically critically ill. Recognition of these response patterns may help all clinicians better communicate... read more

The association of sleep quality, delirium, and sedation status with daily participation in physical therapy in the ICU

Poor sleep is common in the ICU setting and may represent a modifiable risk factor for patient participation in ICU-based physical therapy (PT) interventions. This study evaluates the association of perceived sleep quality,... read more

Clinical Practice Guidelines for Sustained Neuromuscular Blockade in the Adult Critically Ill Patient

Dr. Todd Fraser, MD, speaks with Michael J. Murray, MD, PhD, FCCM, FCCP, about the article, "Clinical Practice Guidelines for Sustained Neuromuscular Blockade in the Adult Critically Ill Patient," published in Critical Care... read more

THRIVE Developments

The THRIVE initiative is proud to announce the selection of 10 institutions to a new Post Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Clinic Collaborative. The purpose of the THRIVE Post ICU Clinic Collaborative is to build an international... read more

Relative Bradycardia in Patients With Septic Shock Requiring

Relative bradycardia in patients with septic shock is associated with lower mortality, even after adjustment for confounding. Our data support expanded investigation into whether inducing relative bradycardia will benefit... read more

Intraoperative Oxidative Stress Associated With Postoperative Delirium

Intraoperative oxidative stress is associated with postoperative delirium in ICU patients after cardiac surgery, a study has found. Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, Tenn., came to this... read more

Vitamin C and the Ethics of Borrowing data

I was recently amazed to be engaged in a Twitter kerfuffle which generated more than 10,000 Impressions within 24 hours. Passions were running high, libellous comments were being broadcast, and old friendships seemed to be... read more

Quantifying the Mortality Impact of Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders in the ICU

Do-not-resuscitate status is an independent risk factor for ICU mortality. This may reflect severity of illness not captured by other clinical factors, but the perceptions of the treating team related to do-not-resuscitate... read more

Perceptions of the Appropriateness of Care in California Adult ICUs

Increased demand for expensive intensive care unit (ICU) services may contribute to rising health-care costs. A focus on appropriate use may offer a clinically meaningful way of finding the balance. Thirty-eight percent of... read more

Clinical review: The ABC of weaning failure

About 20% to 30% of patients are difficult to wean from invasive mechanical ventilation. The pathophysiology of difficult weaning is complex. Accordingly, determining the reason for difficult weaning and subsequently developing... read more

Milestones in Critical Care

Take a look back at some of Critical Care's milestones over the past 20 years. In the past 20 years, the journal has contributed to improving the care of critically ill patients by acquiring, discussing, distributing... read more

The Current State of Glycaemic Control Practice

Study involving intensivists from 90 ICUs in northwest Europe confirms significant variability in glycaemic control practices. The study confirmed that there are still controversies over what constitutes optimal glucose management... read more

Priority Levels in Intensive Care at an Academic Public Hospital

This prospective study of medical records determined the proportion of medical ICU patients in each priority group within a tertiary care academic public hospital. Critical care services can be life-saving, but many patients... read more

The ICM research agenda on ICU-acquired weakness

Intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness (ICUAW) develops as a complication of critical illness and may represent the extreme end of a spectrum of weakness that begins with any serious illness regardless of care location.... read more

Preadmission Oral Corticosteroids Are Associated With Reduced Risk of ARDS in Critically Ill Adults With Sepsis

The unadjusted occurrence rate of acute respiratory distress syndrome within 96 hours of ICU admission was 35% among patients who had received oral corticosteroids compared with 42% among those who had not (p = 0.107). In... read more

Decision Making Model Enables Resolution of Ethics Issues at the Bedside

A study from Switzerland that evaluated implementation of a stepped ethical decision-making model on three intensive care units (ICUs) and two geriatric wards found that it worked well, with staff able to find the time and... read more

Being New in the ICU

Being new in the ICU is not easy. You need to have the passion for critical care so much that you really don’t care how difficult it is. That passion is what gets you through the newbie stress. I was a new grad in the ICU,... read more

An Educational Intervention Optimizes the Use of Arterial Blood Gas Determinations Across ICUs

The large scale implementation of guidelines for ABG use reduced the number of inappropriately ordered ABG determinations over seven different multidisciplinary ICUs, without negatively impacting patient care. We saw a reduction... read more

Barriers to Regaining Control within a Constructivist Grounded Theory of Family Resilience in ICU

This paper discusses families' experiences of their interactions when a relative is admitted unexpectedly to an Australian ICU. A grounded theory methodology was adopted for the study. Data was collected between 2009−2013,... read more

Medical Device Interoperability 4.0: Disruptive Innovation for the ICU

Medical Device Interoperability in the ICU did not undergo any significant innovation in the past 30 years. This is the reason why data integration of medical device data into Electronic Medical Records (EMR/EHR) and Population... read more

National ICU Quality Indicators Revisited

The use of QI at a national level is a suitable method to focus on quality in healthcare. Independently of public access to the results, a local or national ICU network will have a lot to gain from engaging in the process... read more

Toward the Ideal Ratio of Patients to Intensivists

More than 5.7 million patients are admitted annually to an intensive care unit (ICU) in the United States, accounting for approximately 20% of all acute care admissions. With the aging population and its increasing comorbidity... read more