Chest
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Rationing is the allocation of scarce resources, which in health care necessarily entails withholding potentially beneficial treatments from some individuals. Rationing is unavoidable because need is limitless and resources are not. How rationing occurs is important because it not only affects individual lives but also expresses society's most important values. This article discusses the following topics: (1) the inevitability of rationing of social goods, including medical care; (2) types of rationing; (3) ethical principles and procedures for fair allocation; and (4) whether rationing ICU care to those near the end of life would result in substantial cost savings.
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Review Meta Analysis Comparative Study
The timing of tracheotomy in critically ill patients undergoing mechanical ventilation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
The objective of this study was to systematically review and quantitatively synthesize all randomized controlled trials (RCTs), comparing important outcomes in ventilated critically ill patients who received an early or late tracheotomy. ⋯ The present meta-analysis suggested that the timing of the tracheotomy did not significantly alter important clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. The duration of MV and sedation, as well as the long-term outcomes of ET in mechanically ventilated patients, should be evaluated in rigorously designed and adequately powered RCTs in the future.
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Every country has finite resources that are expended to provide citizens with social "goods," including education, protection, infrastructure, and health care. Rationing-of any resource-refers to distribution of an allotted amount and may involve withholding some goods that would benefit some citizens. ⋯ Academic physicians from England, Spain, Italy, France, Argentina, Canada, and the United States wrote essays that addressed specific questions including: (1) What historical, cultural, and medical institutional features inform my country's approach to rationing of health care? (2) What is known about formal rationing, especially in critical care, in my country? (3) How does rationing occur in my ICU? Responses suggest that critical care is rationed, by varying mechanisms, in all seven countries. We speculate that while no single "best" method of rationing is likely to be acceptable or optimal for all countries, professional societies could serve international health by developing evidence-based guidelines for just and effective rationing of critical care.
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Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) management has become more daunting over the past decade because of alarming increases in CDI incidence and severity both in the hospital and in the community. This increase has concomitantly caused significant escalation of the health-care economic burden caused by CDI, and it will likely be translated to increased ICU admission and attributable mortality. Some possible causes for difficulty in management of CDI are as follows: (1) inability to predict and prevent development of severe/complicated or relapsing CDI in patients who initially present with mild symptoms; (2) lack of a method to determine who would have benefited a priori from initiating vancomycin treatment first instead of treatment with metronidazole; (3) lack of sensitive and specific CDI diagnostics; (4) changing epidemiology of CDI, including the emergence of a hypervirulent, epidemic C difficile strain associated with increased morbidity and mortality; (5) association of certain high-usage nonantimicrobial medications with CDI; and (6) lack of treatment regimens that leave the normal intestinal flora undisturbed while treating the primary infection. The objective of this article is to present current management and prevention guidelines for CDI based on recommendations by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and Infectious Diseases Society of America and potential new clinical management strategies on the horizon.
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Review
Implementing early mobilization interventions in mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU.
As ICU survival continues to improve, clinicians are faced with short- and long-term consequences of critical illness. Deconditioning and weakness have become common problems in survivors of critical illness requiring mechanical ventilation. Recent literature, mostly from a medical population of patients in the ICU, has challenged the patient care model of prolonged bed rest. ⋯ The importance of interactions between mind and body are highlighted by these studies, with improvements in patient awareness and reductions in ICU delirium being noted. Future research to address the benefits of early mobilization in other patient populations is needed. In addition, the potential for early mobilization to impact long-term outcomes in ICU survivors requires further study.