The Intensive Care Medicine Research Agenda on Critically Ill Oncology and Hematology Patients

The Intensive Care Medicine Research Agenda on Critically Ill Oncology and Hematology Patients

Over the coming years, accelerating progress against cancer will be associated with an increased number of patients who require life‑sustaining therapies for infectious or toxic chemotherapy‑related events. Major changes... read more

Guidelines for the Provision and Assessment of Nutrition Support Therapy in the Pediatric Critically Ill Patient

Guidelines for the Provision and Assessment of Nutrition Support Therapy in the Pediatric Critically Ill Patient

This document represents the first collaboration between two organizations, American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the Society of Critical Care Medicine, to describe best practices in nutrition therapy in... read more

Antibiotic Therapy in Comatose Mechanically Ventilated Patients Following Aspiration

Antibiotic Therapy in Comatose Mechanically Ventilated Patients Following Aspiration

Among comatose patients receiving mechanical ventilation, those without clinical, laboratory, or radiologic evidence of bacterial aspiration pneumonia did not require antibiotics. In those with suspected bacterial aspiration... read more

The Role of Oliguria and the Absence of Fluid Administration and Balance Information in Illness Severity Scores

The Role of Oliguria and the Absence of Fluid Administration and Balance Information in Illness Severity Scores

Urinary examination has formed part of patient assessment since the earliest days of medicine. Current definitions of oliguria are essentially arbitrary, but duration and intensity of oliguria have been associated with an... read more

The Complexities of Intravenous Fluid Research: Questions of Scale, Volume, and Accumulation

The Complexities of Intravenous Fluid Research: Questions of Scale, Volume, and Accumulation

Despite near ubiquity, information regarding fluids consumption at a health care systems level, and patient exposure at an individual level, is surprisingly limited in the medical literature. The epidemiology of the foundational... read more

Aspirin therapy in patients with ARDS is associated with reduced ICU mortality

Aspirin therapy in patients with ARDS is associated with reduced ICU mortality

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common clinical syndrome with high mortality and long-term morbidity. To date there is no effective pharmacological therapy. Aspirin therapy has recently been shown to reduce... read more

New Biomarker Improves Early Sepsis Detection in the Emergency Department

New Biomarker Improves Early Sepsis Detection in the Emergency Department

Sepsis most often presents to the emergency department (ED), and delayed detection is harmful. The white blood count (WBC) is often used to detect sepsis in the ED. New research shows that volume increases of circulating... read more

Evaluation of early antimicrobial therapy adaptation guided by the BetaLACTA test

Evaluation of early antimicrobial therapy adaptation guided by the BetaLACTA test

Rapid diagnostic tests detecting microbial resistance are needed for limiting the duration of inappropriateness of empirical antimicrobial therapy (EAT) in ICU patients, besides reducing the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics.... read more

A Placebo-Controlled Trial of Antibiotics for Smaller Skin Abscesses

A Placebo-Controlled Trial of Antibiotics for Smaller Skin Abscesses

Uncomplicated skin abscesses are common, yet the appropriate management of the condition in the era of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is unclear. As compared with incision and drainage... read more

An NIH-Kennedy Center Initiative to Explore Music and the Mind

An NIH-Kennedy Center Initiative to Explore Music and the Mind

Music is fundamental to the human species in ways that reach beyond entertainment or pastime. In Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks noted that music can "calm us, animate us, comfort us, thrill us, or serve to organize and synchronize... read more

Angiotensin II may improve vasopressors’ efficacy

Angiotensin II may improve vasopressors’ efficacy

Adding angiotensin II to available vasopressor therapies correlated with significantly improved arterial pressure in patients with catecholamine-resistant vasodilatory shock and less adverse effects, according to a study... read more

A Randomized Trial of the Amikacin Fosfomycin Inhalation System for the Adjunctive Therapy of Gram-Negative VAP

A Randomized Trial of the Amikacin Fosfomycin Inhalation System for the Adjunctive Therapy of Gram-Negative VAP

Clinical failures in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by gram-negative bacteria are common and associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and resource utilization. In this trial of adjunctive aerosol therapy... read more

Effect of Home Noninvasive Ventilation With Oxygen Therapy vs Oxygen Therapy Alone on Hospital Readmission or Death After an Acute COPD Exacerbation

Effect of Home Noninvasive Ventilation With Oxygen Therapy vs Oxygen Therapy Alone on Hospital Readmission or Death After an Acute COPD Exacerbation

In this randomized clinical trial of 116 patients, the addition of home noninvasive ventilation significantly prolonged time to readmission or death from 1.4 months to 4.3 months. Among patients with persistent hypercapnia... read more

Delayed Referral Results in Missed Opportunities for Organ Donation

Delayed Referral Results in Missed Opportunities for Organ Donation

Rates of organ donation and transplantation have steadily increased in the United States and Canada over the past decade, largely attributable to a notable increase in donation after circulatory death. However, the number... read more