Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Feb 2017
Clinical study of a new Modified Early Warning System scoring system for rapidly evaluating shock in adults.
Shock, the most common severe emergency syndrome, has a complicated etiopathogenesis, is difficult to identify, progresses quickly, and is dangerous. Early identification and intervention play determining roles in the final outcomes of shock patients, but no specific scoring system for shock has been established to date. ⋯ The new MEWS scoring system could be an independent indicator to reflect shock severity. It has higher predictive efficacy in septic shock, especially for 28-day prognosis.
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Journal of critical care · Feb 2017
Failure of chemical thromboprophylaxis in critically ill medical and surgical patients with sepsis.
Critically ill patients who develop sepsis may be at a higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis failure; however, studies in this population are limited. The objective of this study was to identify the incidence of VTE prophylaxis failure in this population. ⋯ Critically ill patients with sepsis had a high rate of VTE prophylaxis failure with ARDS being identified as a risk factor for VTE prophylaxis failure.
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Journal of critical care · Feb 2017
Safety and feasibility of a neuromuscular electrical stimulation chronaxie-based protocol in critical ill patients: A prospective observational study.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and feasibility of a neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) protocol based on neuromuscular excitability and applied in numerous muscle groups of critical ill patients. ⋯ We demonstrated that NMES chronaxie-based protocol is safe and feasible.
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Journal of critical care · Feb 2017
Guillain-Barré syndrome in patients with a recent history of Zika in Cúcuta, Colombia: A descriptive case series of 19 patients from December 2015 to March 2016.
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is an emerging global threat and a public health problem in the Americas. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has been recently associated to ZIKV. This report presents a case series of GBS possibly associated to ZIKV. ⋯ All cases of this GBS outbreak had a recent history ZIKV infection, reinforcing existing evidence for the association between GBS and ZIKV. Future genetic and immunologic studies are warranted to further investigate the cause of the outbreak in detail.
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Journal of critical care · Feb 2017
Perspectives of physicians and nurses on identifying and treating psychological distress of the critically ill.
Survivors of critical illness are frequently unable to return to their premorbid level of psychocognitive functioning following discharge. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the burden of psychological trauma experienced by patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) as perceived by clinicians to assess factors that can impede its recognition and treatment in the ICU. ⋯ Both physicians and nurses acknowledge that they perceive that critically ill patients experience a high level of psychological stress that persists throughout their period of illness. Improved understanding of this phenomenon is needed to design effective therapeutic interventions. Although the lack of time is identified as significant barrier to ameliorating patient's psychological stress, the majority of clinicians indicate that they attempt to provide interventions to achieve this goal.