Tag: ICU
A Primer on the Perils of Intravenous Fluids – Part 1
The provision of intravenous fluids is no trivial intervention. Indeed, one eminent nephrologist has called for medical students to receive, not a 'white coat ceremony' at the outset of their education, but instead... read more
Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT)
Pain is a common and distressing symptom experienced by intensive care patients. Assessing pain in this environment is challenging, and published guidelines have been inconsistently implemented. The Pain Assessment in INTensive... read more
Delirium: Thinking Clearly About a Foggy Issue
Benzodiazepines are one of the leading causes of delirium. These drugs are already falling out of favor in critical care settings for other reasons; they are not easily titratable, and research suggests they can prolong a... read more
Guidelines for Family-Centered Care in the Neonatal, Pediatric, and Adult ICU
The primary goal of these guidelines is to identify best practices for family-centered care in the ICU based on existing evidence. These guidelines were developed using a rigorous, objective, and transparent assessment of... read more
Ureteral stents, sepsis and acute kidney injury: Iatrogenic imperfecta!
Case presentation A 62-year-old woman with a past history of placement of bilateral ureteral "JJ" stents, presented to the hospital complaining of fever, chills, abdominal pain, oliguria and was found to be hypotensive.... read more
Sodium Bicarbonate Versus Sodium Chloride for Preventing Contrast-Associated AKI
Except for urinary pH, none of the outcomes differed between the two groups. Among ICU patients with stable renal function, the benefit of using sodium bicarbonate rather than isotonic sodium chloride for preventing contrast-associated... read more
How survival of cancer patients in critical care has improved in the last 3 decades
Comprehensive care for critically ill patients with cancer is a collaborative effort, and close cooperation between oncology as well as palliative and critical care is essential. Collaborative decision making is a cornerstone... read more
Transmission of Staphylococcus aureus between health-care workers, the environment, and patients in ICU
Between Oct 31, 2011, and Dec 23, 2012, we sampled 198 health-care workers, 40 environmental locations, and 1854 patients; 1819 isolates were sequenced. Median nasal carriage rate of S aureus in health-care workers at 4-weekly... read more
Pre-Op Screen: What Does A Pulse Oximeter Tell Us?
Routinely utilized in ICUs, operating rooms, and telemetry floors, the pulse oximeter ("pulse ox") is perhaps the single greatest monitoring advancement in the modern medical era. It relies on the fact that oxyhemoglobin... read more
The ABCDEF Bundle: Science and Philosophy of How ICU Liberation Serves Patients and Families
Over the past 20 years, critical care has matured in a myriad of ways resulting in dramatically higher survival rates for our sickest patients. For millions of new survivors comes de novo suffering and disability called "the... read more
SOFA score may be best to identify sepsis in the ICU
Among critically ill patients admitted to the ICU with a suspected infection, defining sepsis by an increase of two or more points in the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score yielded greater prognostic accuracy... read more
Impact of transfusion on patients with sepsis admitted in ICU
Red blood cell transfusion (RBCT) threshold in patients with sepsis remains a matter of controversy. A threshold of 7 g/dL for stabilized patients with sepsis is commonly proposed, although debated. The aim of the study was... read more
Clinical Pharmacist Role in the ICU
An overview of the various facets of pharmacist practice in the intensive care unit (ICU), the current extent to which pharmacists are present in the ICU, along with a discussion on barriers and lessons learned in garnering... read more
Patients want to be heard loud and clear!
We congratulate ten Hoorn et al. on their systematic review of communication with ICU patients. Their work in defining an algorithm to assist improving communication options for these patients addresses a clear gap in patient-centred... read more
Poor outcome predictors in status epilepticus
Predictors of poor outcomes in patients with status epilepticus admitted to the neurointensive care unit include complex partial status epilepticus, refractory status epilepticus, or the development of nonconvulsive status... read more
Improving the quality of nurse‐influenced patient care in the ICU
Quality of care is a major focus in the intensive care unit (ICU). The nursing-initiated QI project demonstrated improved ICU patient care in relation to early enteral nutrition commencement, DSIs and early and daily mobilizing.... read more
The Role of Intensive Care Registries
To develop, implement, evaluate and sustain a quality improvement programme in the ICU is an important and demanding undertaking. The work can be made easier by joining an intensive care registry. Mature registries have resources... read more
