Chest
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Family engagement is a key component of high-quality critical care, with known benefits for patients, care teams, and family members themselves. The COVID-19 pandemic led to rapid enactment of prohibitions or restrictions on visitation that now persist, particularly for patients with COVID-19. Reevaluation of these policies in response to advances in knowledge and resources since the early pandemic is critical because COVID-19 will continue to be a public health threat for months to years, and future pandemics are likely. This article reviews rationales and evidence for restricting or permitting family members' physical presence and provides broad guidance for health care systems to develop and implement policies that maximize benefit and minimize risk of family visitation during COVID-19 and future similar public health crises.
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Multicenter Study
Adiposity and interstitial lung abnormalities in community dwelling adults: the MESA cohort study.
Obesity is associated with restrictive ventilatory defects and a faster rate of decline in FVC. This association is not exclusively mediated by mechanical factors and may reflect direct pulmonary injury by adipose-derived mediators. ⋯ Greater amounts of pericardial and abdominal visceral adipose tissue were associated with CT measures of early lung injury and lower FVC in a cohort of community-dwelling adults. Adipose tissue may represent a modifiable risk factor for ILD.
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Joblessness is common after ARDS, but related risk factors are not fully understood. ⋯ For previously employed survivors of ARDS, post-ARDS psychosocial and physical impairments, pain, and fatigue were negatively associated with RTW, whereas pre-ARDS workload was not associated. These findings are important for designing and implementing vocational interventions for ARDS survivors.