Critical care explorations
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The primary objective was to evaluate ICU mortality at 28 days in patients with severe hypoxemic respiratory failure due to coronavirus disease 2019 infection who received tocilizumab. The secondary objectives were to evaluate ICU-, hospital-, mechanical ventilation-, and vasopressor-free days at day 28 and development of secondary infections.
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The main objective of this study was to evaluate trends in set tidal volumes across all adult ICUs at a large academic medical center over 6 years, with a focus on adherence to lung-protective ventilation (≤ 8-cc/kg ideal body weight). A secondary objective was to survey providers on their perceptions of lung-protective ventilation and barriers to its implementation.
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Liberal fluid strategies in critically ill patients are associated with harm, thought to be due to endothelial and glycocalyx injury. As the restrictive versus liberal fluid therapy for major abdominal surgery trial not only failed to report survival benefit with restrictive fluids but was associated with a higher rate of acute kidney injury, we hypothesized that factors other than endothelial and glycocalyx injury were likely to account for these findings. Consequently, we measured injury biomarkers in a cohort of the restrictive versus liberal fluid therapy for major abdominal surgery trial.
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Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is a life-threatening hyperinflammatory disorder that is associated with high morbidity and mortality in the ICU. It has also been associated with acute liver failure.
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End-of-life care and decisions on withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies vary across countries, which may affect the feasibility of future multicenter cardiac arrest trials. In Brazil, withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy is reportedly uncommon, allowing the natural history of postcardiac arrest hypoxic-ischemic brain injury to present itself. We aimed to characterize approaches to neuroprognostication of cardiac arrest survivors among physicians in Brazil.