Oxalate Nephropathy Following Vitamin C Intake within ICU

Oxalate Nephropathy Following Vitamin C Intake within ICU

Compelling evidence obtained from in-vitro and animal studies suggest that vitamin C, a circulating antioxidant, may be a valuable adjunctive therapy in critically-ill patients. Data from humans are more conflicting.... read more

What should we stop doing in the ICU?

Intensive care is an interesting specialty. From all the early excitement in the 1970s, passing through two decades of intensive physiological use at the bedside, intensive care landed on the rough ground of modern randomized... read more

Does Head of Bed Elevation During Intubation Improve Patient Oriented Outcomes?

Does Head of Bed Elevation During Intubation Improve Patient Oriented Outcomes?

To date the study that has shown the biggest benefit to HOB elevation is the 2016 study performed by Khandelwal and colleagues in a teaching hospital system in Seattle, WA. 528 patients managed by anesthesiologists... read more

Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis with Proton Pump Inhibitors or Histamin-2 Receptor Antagonists in Adult Intensive Care Patients

Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis with Proton Pump Inhibitors or Histamin-2 Receptor Antagonists in Adult Intensive Care Patients

In this updated systematic review, we were able to refute a relative change of 20% of mortality. The occurrence of GI bleeding was reduced, but we lack firm evidence for a reduction in clinically important GI bleeding. The... read more

Environment key battle ground in fight to tackle antibiotic resistance

Environment key battle ground in fight to tackle antibiotic resistance

The environment could be as important a battle ground as the clinic in the global fight against the spread of antibiotic resistance, new research has shown. A study conducted at the University of Exeter Medical School concluded... read more

Optimizing Respiratory Management in Resource-limited Settings

Optimizing Respiratory Management in Resource-limited Settings

This review focuses on the emerging body of literature regarding the management of acute respiratory failure (ARF) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The aim is to abstract management principles that are of relevance... read more

Regeneration of Severely Damaged Lungs Using an Interventional Cross-circulation Platform

Regeneration of Severely Damaged Lungs Using an Interventional Cross-circulation Platform

The number of available donor organs limits lung transplantation, the only lifesaving therapy for the increasing population of patients with end-stage lung disease. A prevalent etiology of injury that renders lungs unacceptable... read more

Closed ICU Model Linked to 100% Reduction in Several HAIs

Closed ICU Model Linked to 100% Reduction in Several HAIs

A closed intensive care unit model, in which a patient is evaluated and admitted under an intensivist and patient care orders are written by ICU staff, can help reduce rates of several healthcare-associated infections (HAI),... read more

Antibiotic Therapy for Severe CAP in the ICU

Antibiotic Therapy for Severe CAP in the ICU

Researchers have assessed the impact antibiotic therapy on short (hospital) and long-term (6 months) outcomes of ICU patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia. Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains one of the... read more

Why Most Diagnostic Procedures Aren’t Beneficial

Why Most Diagnostic Procedures Aren’t Beneficial

We often assume that diagnostic procedures will help patients. A lot of training goes into learning how to do these procedures. Procedures are dramatic. We like performing them. Patients are impressed, perceiving that we... read more

Does De-escalation of Anti-MRSA Therapy for Culture-negative Pneumonia Affect Patient Outcomes?

Does De-escalation of Anti-MRSA Therapy for Culture-negative Pneumonia Affect Patient Outcomes?

Nosocomial pneumonia is a common hospital-acquired infection and has a high mortality rate in the critically ill. Because drug-resistant bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus... read more

Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Are Elevated in Patients with Pneumonia-related ARDS

Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Are Elevated in Patients with Pneumonia-related ARDS

Bronchoalveolar neutrophil extracellular trap concentration was not significantly associated with mechanical ventilation duration in pneumonia-related ARDS. The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the most severe... read more

Corticosteroids for Treating Pneumonia

Corticosteroids for Treating Pneumonia

Pneumonia remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States.1 There is both theoretical and laboratory evidence that corticosteroids may have beneficial effects in pneumonia through local pulmonary and... read more

Dysphagia in the ICU: Epidemiology, Mechanisms, and Clinical Management

Dysphagia in the ICU: Epidemiology, Mechanisms, and Clinical Management

In the light of the fact that the clinical consequences of ICU-acquired dysphagia (e.g., aspiration-induced pneumonitis/pneumonia) can often be observed on ICUs, more data on underlying mechanisms and/or risk factors seems... read more

Effect of Piperacillin-Tazobactam vs Meropenem on 30-Day Mortality for Patients With E coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae Bloodstream Infection and Ceftriaxone Resistance

Effect of Piperacillin-Tazobactam vs Meropenem on 30-Day Mortality for Patients With E coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae Bloodstream Infection and Ceftriaxone Resistance

Among patients with E coli or K pneumoniae bloodstream infection and ceftriaxone resistance, definitive treatment with piperacillin-tazobactam compared with meropenem did not result in a noninferior 30-day mortality. These... read more

Flu Season May Not Have Peaked, and there’s Another Wave of Severe Infections Underway

Flu Season May Not Have Peaked, and there’s Another Wave of Severe Infections Underway

Flu activity remains high across the nation, and there's a second wave of severe infections striking some states. There were as many as 26.3 million flu illnesses, 12.4 million medical visits and 347,000 flu hospitalizations... read more

Appropriate Treatment for Bloodstream Infections Due to Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella Pneumoniae and Escherichia Coli

Appropriate Treatment for Bloodstream Infections Due to Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella Pneumoniae and Escherichia Coli

Tigecycline monotherapy was a choice if the strains exhibited MIC ≤0.5 mg/L, and colistin monotherapy was not suitable. Our findings can initiate additional clinical studies regarding the efficacy of tigecycline in carbapenem-resistant... read more