Intensive care medicine
-
Intensive care medicine · Mar 2024
Through the looking glass: qualitative study of critical care clinicians engaging in humanities.
Critical care medicine is facing an epidemic of burnout and consequent attrition. Interventions are needed to re-establish the medical field as a place of professional growth, resilience, and personal well-being. Humanities facilitate creation, reflection, and meaning-making, holding the promise of personal and community transformation. This study aimed to explore how clinicians engage with a humanities program, and what role and impact do the humanities play in their individual and collective journey. ⋯ Humanities may impact resilience and personal and community well-being by facilitating reflection and meaning-making of challenging clinical work and building bonds between colleagues.
-
Intensive care medicine · Mar 2024
Meta AnalysisLong-term outcomes of patients supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for acute respiratory distress syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is increasingly used to support patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The impact of ECMO on long-term outcomes of patients with severe ARDS is unclear. ⋯ Survivors of ECMO for ARDS experience significant disability in multiple domains. Further studies are needed to examine the effect of ECMO on long-term outcomes of patients compared to CMV.
-
Intensive care medicine · Mar 2024
Multicenter Study Observational StudyReactivation of Epstein-Barr virus among intensive care patients: a prospective observational study.
Herpesvirus reactivation has been documented among patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, particularly for cytomegalovirus (CMV). Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been poorly studied despite >95% of the population being seropositive. Our preliminary study suggested an association between EBV reactivation and increased morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to investigate this association among patients admitted to the ICU. ⋯ While EBV reactivation was not associated with increased 90-day mortality, it was associated with significantly increased morbidity.
-
Intensive care medicine · Mar 2024
Age and associated outcomes among patients receiving venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for acute respiratory failure: analysis of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization registry.
Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) can be used to support patients with refractory acute respiratory failure, though guidance on patient selection is lacking. While age is commonly utilized as a factor in establishing the potential VV-ECMO candidacy of these patients, little is known regarding its association with outcome. We studied the association between increasing patient age and outcomes among patients with acute respiratory failure receiving VV-ECMO. ⋯ Among patients receiving VV-ECMO for acute respiratory failure, increasing age is significantly associated with poorer outcomes, and this association emerges as early as 30 years of age.