Effects of Patient-Directed Music Intervention on Anxiety and Sedative Exposure in Critically Ill Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilatory Support

Effects of Patient-Directed Music Intervention on Anxiety and Sedative Exposure in Critically Ill Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilatory Support

Among ICU patients receiving acute ventilatory support for respiratory failure, patient-directed music (PDM) resulted in greater reduction in anxiety compared with usual care, but not compared with NCH. Concurrently, PDM... read more

Finding Out What Matters to Our Patients

Finding Out What Matters to Our Patients

Do you spend time finding out what the "why" is for your patient? Have you considered it’s not what is the matter with the patient but what matters to the patient? What the patient thinks their purpose is? Or at the very... read more

SOS Asynchronies: Do We Need Help?

SOS Asynchronies: Do We Need Help?

Synchrony between the patient and the ventilator is defined as the appropriate interaction between the two, where the ventilator recognizes patient’s effort and provides support for breathing at the right time—that is,... read more

How You Can Protect Your Parent From Delirium

How You Can Protect Your Parent From Delirium

Unlike dementia, which is constant and gets progressively worse, delirium tends to come and go, fluctuating even in the course of a day. The symptoms are transitory, yet for people who develop delirium, it can be the start... read more

Controversial US Ketamine Trial Sparks Ethics Complaint

Controversial US Ketamine Trial Sparks Ethics Complaint

Advocacy group alleges that emergency medical workers in Minnesota gave patients ketamine injections without consent, despite known risks. A consumer-advocacy group is filing a complaint with the US government about two clinical... read more

Thai cave rescue: The drug that allowed boys to survive rescue mission

Thai cave rescue: The drug that allowed boys to survive rescue mission

Thai schoolboys were rescued from the cave using dissociative ketamine plus positive-pressure facemask ventilation (to prevent water from leaking into their masks), so they basically used delayed sequence intubation strategy.... read more

Methodologic Innovation in Creating Clinical Practice Guidelines

Methodologic Innovation in Creating Clinical Practice Guidelines

Our multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach and novel methodologic strategies can help inform the development of future critical care clinical practice guidelines. Critical illness survivors contributed to prioritizing topics,... read more

Patient Remains Awake for 90 Minutes of CPR

Patient Remains Awake for 90 Minutes of CPR

A man undergoing CPR, exhibited signs of conscious awareness for 90 minutes before the medical team stopped the life-sustaining procedure, according to a new case report. The 69-year-old man was admitted to a hospital in... read more

Getting Creative with Ketamine

Getting Creative with Ketamine

Versatile and safe, Ketamine can help with sedation, induction, asthma and pain. Can a shot of it even treat suicidality? New indications for Ketamine seem to be popping up every day. Its primary ED use is for procedural... read more

Limiting Sedation for Patients with ARDS

Limiting Sedation for Patients with ARDS

Current evidence supports the use of protocol-based, light-sedation strategies in critically ill patients with ARDS. Further research into sedation management specifically in ARDS populations is needed. Deep sedation strategies... read more

The A1 Sedation Package: Better Care for Intubated Patients

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

Early Mobilization of Patients in ICU

Early Mobilization of Patients in ICU

Currently there is a divide between ICU clinicians who wish to implement early mobilization based on current evidence and clinicians who believe that early mobilization is an intervention that should be tested in a large... read more

Updated Version of the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU

Updated Version of the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU

The 2014 updated version of the CAM-ICU is valid according to DSM-5 criteria and reliable regarding inter-observer agreement in a research setting. Delirium remains under-recognized by bedside clinicians. Delirium was diagnosed... read more

Simplifying Mechanical Ventilation

Simplifying Mechanical Ventilation

Mechanical Ventilation is a modality commonly used in the critically ill, but many providers, may not have a strong understanding of the basics. Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Physicians need to have a firm grasp of... read more