Complications in Acute Care Surgery: The Management of Difficult Clinical Scenarios

Complications in Acute Care Surgery: The Management of Difficult Clinical Scenarios

This text provides the reader a starting point for the most difficult and uncommon complications in acute care surgery. It is designed to provide options to that ubiquitous intra-operative or bedside question "Well, now what... read more

Effects of Neuromuscular Block Reversal with Sugammadex vs. Neostigmine on Postoperative Respiratory Outcomes After Major Abdominal Surgery

Effects of Neuromuscular Block Reversal with Sugammadex vs. Neostigmine on Postoperative Respiratory Outcomes After Major Abdominal Surgery

No differences found in pulmonary function in patients reversed with sugammadex or neostigmine in a high-risk population. 126 patients were included in the main analysis. In the neostigmine group (n = 64), mean (95%... read more

Epidemiology of Clinically Relevant Bleeding in Critically Ill Adolescents

Epidemiology of Clinically Relevant Bleeding in Critically Ill Adolescents

Clinically Relevant Bleeding (CRB) is common in critically ill adolescents who are at high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Admission after trauma or surgery can be used to stratify the risk of CRB in this population.... read more

Prehabilitation and Nutritional Support to Improve Perioperative Outcomes

Prehabilitation and Nutritional Support to Improve Perioperative Outcomes

Studies evaluating exercise and nutrition interventions before elective major surgery in adults are producing encouraging early results, but definitive clinical evidence is currently very limited. Future research should... read more

Intra-Operative Events During Cardiac Surgery are Risk Factors for the Development of Delirium in the ICU

Intra-Operative Events During Cardiac Surgery are Risk Factors for the Development of Delirium in the ICU

Risk factors for delirium following cardiac surgery are incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether intra-operative pathophysiological alterations and therapeutic interventions influence... read more

The Effect of Vitamin C on Clinical Outcome in Critically Ill Patients

The Effect of Vitamin C on Clinical Outcome in Critically Ill Patients

In a mixed population of ICU patients, vitamin C administration is associated with no significant effect on survival, length of ICU or hospital stay. In cardiac surgery, beneficial effects on postoperative atrial fibrillation,... read more

Ramelteon for Prevention of Postoperative Delirium

Ramelteon for Prevention of Postoperative Delirium

Ramelteon 8 mg did not prevent postoperative delirium in patients admitted for elective cardiac surgery. Incident delirium was measured twice daily using the Confusion Assessment Method-ICU. The safety outcome was... read more

Vitamin D Deficiency in ICU Patients

Vitamin D research has experienced a true hype in all fields of medicine in the last decades. In critical illness, this increased interest has only started 10 years ago. The high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in... read more

Implementation of a Standardized Transfusion Protocol for Cardiac Patients Treated With Venoarterial ECMO Is Associated With Decreased Blood Component Utilization and May Improve Clinical Outcome

The data indicate that implementation of a standardized transfusion protocol, using more restrictive transfusion indications in cardiac ECMO patients, was associated with reduced blood product utilization, decreased complications,... read more

AKI in Critically Ill Patients After Noncardiac Major Surgery

AKI in Critically Ill Patients After Noncardiac Major Surgery

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of major surgery. However, acute kidney injury occurring within the first 48 hours after surgery (early acute kidney injury) and therefore likely related to the surgery itself... read more

Association Between Mean Arterial Pressure and AKI and a Composite of Myocardial Injury and Mortality in Postoperative Critically Ill Patients

Association Between Mean Arterial Pressure and AKI and a Composite of Myocardial Injury and Mortality in Postoperative Critically Ill Patients

Hypotension thresholds that provoke renal injury, myocardial injury, and mortality in critical care patients remain unknown. We primarily sought to determine the relationship between hypotension and a composite of myocardial... read more

Preventing Surgical Site Infections Related to Abdominal Drains in the ICU

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

12 Great Summer Reads for Intensivists

12 Great Summer Reads for Intensivists

From fascinating medical memoirs to horrifying accounts of medical mistreatment in the past two centuries, these books will make you aware of how far medicine has come and how far it has yet to go. Surgeries without anesthesia,... read more

Circulating Secretoneurin Concentrations After Cardiac Surgery

Circulating Secretoneurin Concentrations After Cardiac Surgery

Circulating postoperative secretoneurin concentrations provide incremental prognostic information to established risk indices in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Preoperative and postoperative secretoneurin concentration... read more