Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialA randomized clinical trial of an intervention to relieve thirst and dry mouth in intensive care unit patients.
To test an intervention bundle for thirst intensity, thirst distress, and dry mouth, which are among the most pervasive, intense, distressful, unrecognized, and undertreated symptoms in ICU patients, but for which data-based interventions are lacking. ⋯ This simple, inexpensive thirst bundle significantly decreased ICU patients' thirst and dry mouth and can be considered a practice intervention for patients experiencing thirst.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2014
Optic nerve sheath diameter on computed tomography is correlated with simultaneously measured intracranial pressure in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.
Assess the relationship between optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) measured on bedside portable computed tomography (CT) scans and simultaneously measured intracranial pressure (ICP) in patients with severe traumatic brain injury. ⋯ Simultaneous measurement of ONSD on CT and ICP were strongly correlated and ONSD was discriminative for intracranial hypertension. ONSD was much more predictive of ICP than other CT features. There was excellent agreement between raters in measuring ONSD.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2014
Trends in admission prevalence, illness severity and survival of haematological patients treated in Dutch intensive care units.
To explore trends over time in admission prevalence and (risk-adjusted) mortality of critically ill haematological patients and compare these trends to those of several subgroups of patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit (medical ICU patients). ⋯ An increasing number of haematological patients are being admitted to Dutch ICUs. While mortality is significantly higher in this group of medical ICU patients than in subgroups of non-haematological ones, the former show a similar decrease in raw and risk-adjusted mortality rate over time, while leukocytopenia is not a predictor of mortality. These results suggest that haematological ICU patients have benefitted from improved intensive care support during the last decade.