Preventing Surgical Site Infections Related to Abdominal Drains in the ICU

Surgical site infections are significant contributors to health care–associated infections. Nursing interventions may help decrease the incidence of surgical site infections, particularly in regards to the management of... read more

Laryngeal Injury and Upper Airway Symptoms After Oral Endotracheal Intubation With Mechanical Ventilation During Critical Care

Laryngeal injury from intubation is common in the ICU setting. Guidelines for laryngeal assessment and postextubation surveillance do not exist. A systematic approach to more robust investigations could increase knowledge... read more

Antipsychotics to Treat Delirium in Hospitalized Patients Not Including the ICUs

No evidence has been found to support or refute the suggestion that antipsychotics shorten the course of delirium in hospitalized patients. Based on the available studies, antipsychotics do not reduce the severity of delirium... read more

Prophylactic Haloperidol Effects on Long-term Quality of Life in Critically Ill Patients at High Risk for Delirium

Prophylactic haloperidol use does not affect long-term quality of life in critically ill patients at high risk for delirium. Several factors, including the modifiable factor number of sedation-induced coma days, are associated... read more

Sedation Practices of Neonates Receiving ECMO

Neonatal sedation practices during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) are not well described and no universal guidelines exist. Current literature describes types of medications used in adult and pediatric ECMO... read more

Pulmonary Embolism Hospitalization, Readmission, and Mortality Rates in US Older Adults

Over the past 15 years, advances have occurred in the diagnosis and management of pulmonary embolism (PE).1 Computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is now the routine diagnostic test. The availability of risk... read more

Outcome After Out-of-Hospital Ventricular Fibrillation or Pulseless Ventricular Tachycardia

Survival was found to be at the upper range of the results retrieved by the systematic literature review. However, we found no significant improvements over time. The neurological outcomes of the survivors were favorable.... read more

Estimated Effects of Early Diuretic Use in Critical Illness

The main objectives of this study was to estimate the effects of diuretic use during the first 24 hours of an ICU stay on in-hospital mortality and other clinical outcomes including acute kidney injury (AKI) and duration... read more

The Role of Central Venous Oxygen Saturation (ScvO2) as an Indicator of Blood Transfusion in the Critically Ill

Transfusion of red blood cells is an everyday practice in critical care with the primary aim of restoring adequate tissue oxygenation. However, blood transfusion may also be harmful and costly, therefore a so called restrictive... read more

Department-Based ICU Improves Patient Survival Rates

A new Michigan Medicine study found that implementing a dedicated emergency medicine department-based intensive care unit improved patient survival rates and lowered inpatient intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. In the... read more

Risk Factors Associated with 30-day Mortality for Out-of-Center ECMO Support

Out-of-hospital extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) implantation and ECMO transport have become a growing field useful for emergent treatment of heart or lung failure with increasing number of centers launching such... read more

Extubating Ventilated Patients on Vasoactive Infusions is Safe

In a large single centre study, 21% of intubated patients who received infusions of vasoactive infusions while mechanically ventilated were extubated for the first time while still receiving them. Coincident with their earlier... read more

Counterbalancing Work-related Stress? Work Engagement Among Intensive Care Professionals

Work engagement counterbalances work-related stress reactions. The relatively high workload in ICUs, coupled with an especially heavy emotional burden, may be acknowledged as an integral part of ICU work. This workload... read more

Audiobooks As Good As The Old-fashioned Reading

With the rise of new technologies, long gone are the days of cassette tapes and CDs that made stopping, rewinding, learning, and restarting an audio recording an annoyance. Digital media now makes it possible for individuals... read more

Audiobooks As Good As The Old-fashioned Reading

Serum Chloride Levels in Critical Illness – The Hidden Story

Chloride is the principal anion of the extracellular fluid and vital for both serum electroneutrality and acid-base homeostasis. The aim of this review is to investigate the relevance of dyschloremia in the critically... read more

Safety and Efficacy of VBF in Critically Ill, Mechanically Ventilated Adults Using the PERFECT Protocol

Underfeeding in critical illness is common and associated with poor outcomes. According to large prospective hospital studies, volume-based feeding (VBF) safely and effectively improves energy and protein delivery to critically... read more

Hemodynamic Monitoring – The Why, When, Which and What

Although the need to properly assess and monitor the hemodynamic status of a critically ill patient appears self-evident, the plethora of information in the published literature over the past two decades has resulted in complexity... read more

The Spleen: The Forgotten Organ in AKI of Critical Illness

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is an increasing medical burden and is independently associated with mortality. AKI is a common comorbidity in the intensive care unit (ICU), with sepsis-associated AKI seen in almost a quarter of... read more

Possible Link Between Splanchnic Circulatory Changes and Exhaled CH4

The aim of this study was to explore the possible link between splanchnic circulatory changes and exhaled CH4 in an attempt to recognize intestinal perfusion failure. Methane (CH4) breath test is an established diagnostic... read more

Inter-Rater Reliability Between PICU Nurses Performing a Modification to the Glasgow Coma Scale

The objective of this study was to estimate the inter-rater reliability of critical care nurses performing a pediatric modification of the Glasgow Coma Scale in a contemporary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). All... read more

Amount of Muscle Mass During ICU Admission May Be Linked to Survival

In the study cohort, ICU admission pectoralis muscle area (PMA) was associated with survival during and following critical illness; it was unable to predict regaining an independent lifestyle following discharge. ICU admission... read more

Risk of Sepsis and Mortality Among Patients with COPD Treated With Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors or Angiotensin Receptor Blockers

Angiotensin receptor blockers were associated with lower rates of sepsis and mortality than angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The similar findings were also... read more