Time to Add a Fifth Pillar to Bedside Physical Examination

Time to Add a Fifth Pillar to Bedside Physical Examination

Inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation have been the 4 pillars of clinical bedside medicine. Although these basic methods of physical examination have served us well, traditional bedside examination, for a number... read more

Sleep Deprived-Patients in ICU May Fail to Get Off Ventilation

Sleep Deprived-Patients in ICU May Fail to Get Off Ventilation

Attempts to wean intubated, critically ill patients off mechanical ventilators were less successful when the patients exhibited atypical sleep or pathological wakefulness, researchers reported. The findings suggest that sleep... read more

Effect of Titrating PEEP with Esophageal Pressure-Guided Strategy vs Empirical High PEEP-Fio2 Strategy on Death and Days Free From Mechanical Ventilation Among Patients With ARDS

Effect of Titrating PEEP with Esophageal Pressure-Guided Strategy vs Empirical High PEEP-Fio2 Strategy on Death and Days Free From Mechanical Ventilation Among Patients With ARDS

Among patients with moderate to severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), PES-guided positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), compared with empirical high PEEP-Fio2, resulted in no significant difference in death... read more

The Artificial Intelligence Clinician Learns Optimal Treatment Strategies for Sepsis in Intensive Care

The Artificial Intelligence Clinician Learns Optimal Treatment Strategies for Sepsis in Intensive Care

Sepsis is the third leading cause of death worldwide and the main cause of mortality in hospitals but the best treatment strategy remains uncertain. In particular, evidence suggests that current practices in the administration... read more

Fluid Management in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Fluid Management in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

In this video, Dr. Stacey Valentine discusses fluid management in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), including the evidence supporting fluid-restrictive strategies. Both acute lung injury and its more severe form,... read more

Metabolic Sepsis Resuscitation

Metabolic Sepsis Resuscitation

There are roughly two strategies for adjusting the intensity of treatment: Titrated strategy: Treatment intensity is adjusted to match the severity of the disease. Escalation-deescalation strategy: Treatment intensity is... read more

EHR-guided Strategy Reduces Postop VTE Events

EHR-guided Strategy Reduces Postop VTE Events

By incorporating algorithms into the electronic health record (EHR), UPMC was able to realize a "dramatic" 72% reduction in missed doses, from 4,331 missed doses in 2014 to 1,193 in 2015, Dr. Neal told attendees in a session... read more

We Should Avoid the Term “Fluid Overload”

Using the right word or phrase to describe a specific pathologic process/patient diagnosis and/or status is important, not only within the intensive care unit team, but also when we communicate with external consultants.... 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

Out-of-hours Discharge from ICU, In-hospital Mortality and ICU Readmission Rates

Out-of-hours Discharge from ICU, In-hospital Mortality and ICU Readmission Rates

Out-of-hours discharge from an ICU is strongly associated with both in-hospital death and ICU readmission. These effects persisted across all definitions of “out of hours” and across healthcare systems in different geographical... read more

Ranking antibiotics in order of allergenicity

Ranking antibiotics in order of allergenicity

Our current approach to allergy is primarily patient-based. This focuses on the patient’s prior history of reaction: how severe was it, when was it, how certain are we that it was truly allergic? This strategy has been... read more

Timing of Renal Support and Outcome of Septic Shock and ARDS

Timing of Renal Support and Outcome of Septic Shock and ARDS

Early RRT initiation strategy was not associated with any improvement of 60-day mortality in patients with severe acute kidney injury and septic shock or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Unnecessary and potentially... read more

Pediatric Sepsis Endotypes Among Adults With Sepsis

Pediatric Sepsis Endotypes Among Adults With Sepsis

Recent transcriptomic studies describe two subgroups of adults with sepsis differentiated by a sepsis response signature. The implied biology and related clinical associations are comparable with recently reported pediatric... read more

Effect of a Multifaceted Performance Feedback Strategy on Length of Stay Compared With Benchmark Reports Alone

Effect of a Multifaceted Performance Feedback Strategy on Length of Stay Compared With Benchmark Reports Alone

In the context of ICUs participating in a national registry, applying a multifaceted activating performance feedback strategy did not lead to better patient outcomes than only receiving periodical registry reports. The extent... read more

More Than a Tick Box: Medical Checklist Development, Design, and Use

More Than a Tick Box: Medical Checklist Development, Design, and Use

Despite improving patient safety in some perioperative settings, some checklists are not living up to their potential and complaints of "checklist fatigue" and outright rejection of checklists are growing. Problems reported... read more

Joint Consensus Statement on Postoperative Gastrointestinal Dysfunction Within an Enhanced Recovery

Joint Consensus Statement on Postoperative Gastrointestinal Dysfunction Within an Enhanced Recovery

The primary driver of length of stay after bowel surgery, particularly colorectal surgery, is the time to return of gastrointestinal (GI) function. Traditionally, delayed GI recovery was thought to be a routine and unavoidable... read more

Early goal-directed nutrition in ICU patients (EAT-ICU)

Early goal-directed nutrition in ICU patients (EAT-ICU)

Extensive weight loss has been documented in intensive care unit (ICU) survivors, primarily as the result of muscle loss, leading to impaired physical function and reduced quality of life. The aim of the EAT-ICU trial is... read more