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

New Guidelines for Hospital-acquired Pneumonia/Ventilator-associated Pneumonia

New Guidelines for Hospital-acquired Pneumonia/Ventilator-associated Pneumonia

American and European guidelines have many areas of common agreement such as limiting antibiotic duration. Both guidelines were in favor of a close clinical assessment. Neither recommended a regular use of biomarkers but... read more

Clinics Aim to Improve Post-ICU Recovery

Clinics Aim to Improve Post-ICU Recovery

Ten days after arriving in the emergency department with pneumonia, 58-year-old Connie Bovier woke up in the intensive care unit (ICU). She survived acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, and a host of other... read more

Antibiotic Treatment of Hospital-acquired Pneumonia

Antibiotic Treatment of Hospital-acquired Pneumonia

Although more prospective therapy trials of Hospital-acquired Pneumonia (HAP) are needed, based on currently available data, it is possible to use an approach that provides appropriate therapy without the overuse of broad-spectrum... read more

Did This Health Care Policy Do Harm?

Did This Health Care Policy Do Harm?

A well-intentioned program created by the Affordable Care Act may have led to patient deaths. No patient leaves the hospital hoping to return soon. But a decade ago, one in five Medicare patients who were hospitalized for... read more

Flu Has Sickened More Than 13 Million This Season

Flu Has Sickened More Than 13 Million This Season

The CDC estimates that there have been 13.2 million to 15.2 million flu illnesses this season. The CDC estimates there have been 6.2 million to 7.2 million flu medical visits and 155,000 to 186,000 flu hospitalizations this... read more