Tag: oxygenation
The Answer My Friend is Blowin’ in your Nose – High Flow Nasal Oxygen
High flow nasal oxygen is a novel device that actively humidifies and heats air to make flows of up to 60 liters a minutes tolerable. These incredibly high flows are important, because in order to provide 100% fiO2 to patients... read more
A Basic Approach to Treating Various Types of Hypoxia
The use of supplemental oxygen is of no value when treating stagnant and histotoxic hypoxia because the problem is due to impaired cardiac function and cell enzyme inhibition respectfully. Supplemental oxygen is of little... read more
Oxygen: Savior or Devil in a Green Dress?
If you ask any small child what doctors do or what happens in a hospital, you'll probably get some variation of "they make sick people better." Were you to ask the same question of one of those doctors or someone working... read more
Resuscitation Sequence Intubation – Hypoxemia Kills
This blog post is the second part of a series of 3, on a recent lecture I was asked to give on Critical Care Updates: Resuscitation Sequence Intubation. This talk was mostly derived from a podcast by Scott Weingart (Twitter:... read more
ECMO – How can I make the best referral?
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO is one of those treatments we sometimes need to think about with our very sick patients. I recently had to make a referral to my local centre and doing so made me wonder what it... read more
The A1 Sedation Package: Better Care for Intubated Patients
You are called to the scene of a 56-year-old male found unresponsive in his garage workshop. Upon examining him you find him minimally responsive to painful stimulus, moaning and groaning. His family tells you he has high... read more
Techniques for the Difficult Airway
A systematic approach to intubation that emphasizes planning and teamwork can reduce intubation complications. Early use of an EGA or cricothyroidotomy may reduce complications when oxygenation is inadequate. Use of a gum... read more
The 16-year-old Girl Who Walks and Eats Tacos While on Life Support
In November, the otherwise healthy teen was placed on life support in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Now, more than 130 days later, Zei's determination and independence have... read more
Apneic Oxygenation in the ICU
Hypoxemia is the most common complication of endotracheal intubation in the critically ill and the strongest risk factor for periprocedural cardiac arrest and death. The traditional approach to avoiding desaturation during... read more
Isolated Left Ventricular Failure is a Predictor of Poor Outcome in Patients Receiving Veno-Arterial ECMO
Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (va-ECMO) is increasingly and successfully used to assist patients with refractory cardiogenic shock from different causes. A total of 132 va-ECMO patients were enrolled.... read more
Experience and Needs of Family Members of Patients Treated with ECMO
Sudden onset of an unexpected and severe illness is associated with an increased stress experience of family members. Only one study to date has explored the experience of family members of patients who are at high risk of... read more
Oxygen Flow Rate and FiO2: Understand the Relationship!
Oxygen, we all need it! We do not need a lot of it under normal circumstances, with 0.21 being the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) of room air. FiO2 is defined as the concentration of oxygen that a person inhales. The... read more
Hyperoxia and Hypocapnia During Pediatric ECMO
Hyperoxia is common during pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and associated with mortality. Hypocapnia appears to occur less often and although associated with complications, an association with mortality... read more
The Inflammatory Response to ECMO
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a technology capable of providing short-term mechanical support to the heart, lungs or both. Over the last decade, the number of centres offering ECMO has grown rapidly. At the... read more
Clinicians’ Perceptions of Rationales for Rehabilitative Exercise in a Critical Care Setting
Rehabilitative exercise for critically ill patients may have many benefits; however, it is unknown what intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians perceive to be important rationale for the implementation of rehabilitative exercise... read more
Cardiac Output Monitoring: Throw it Out… or Keep it?
In critical care units, the shelf for cardiac output (CO) monitoring devices fills up with ever more innovative systems. Are these techniques useful, or are they expensive and irrelevant gadgets? There are arguments to defend... read more
Tracheal Intubation in Critically Ill Patients
We performed a systematic review of randomized controlled studies evaluating any drug, technique or device aimed at improving the success rate or safety of tracheal intubation in the critically ill. We identified 22 trials... read more
Six-month Outcome of Immunocompromised Severe ARDS Patients Rescued by ECMO
Recently diagnosed immunodeficiency is associated with a much better prognosis in ECMO-treated severe ARDS. However, low 6-month survival of our large cohort of immunocompromised patients supports restricting ECMO to patients... read more
Choosing the Appropriate Configuration and Cannulation Strategies for ECMO
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is becoming a common procedure to support patients with severe cardio-circulatory or respiratory failure as well as in case of combined compromise of the two systems. Deciding which... read more
The Future of Mechanical Ventilation
The adverse effects of mechanical ventilation in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) arise from two main causes: unphysiological increases of transpulmonary pressure and unphysiological increases/decreases of pleural... read more
Urinary Oxygenation as a Surrogate Measure of Medullary Oxygenation During Angiotensin II Therapy in Septic AKI
In septic acute kidney injury (AKI), renal medullary and urinary hypoxia developed several hours before increases in currently used biomarkers. Angiotensin II transiently improved renal function without worsening medullary... read more
Implementation of a Goal-Directed Mechanical Ventilation Order Set Improves Compliance
Implementation of a Goal-Directed Mechanical Ventilation Order Set Driven by Respiratory Therapists Improves Compliance With Best Practices for Mechanical Ventilation. Data regarding best practices for ventilator management... read more
