Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialSeeking to Reduce Nonbeneficial Treatment in the ICU: An Exploratory Trial of Proactive Ethics Intervention.
To investigate whether the proactive intervention of a clinical ethicist in cases of prolonged lengths of stay in a critical care setting reduces nonbeneficial treatment while increasing perceived patient/surrogate and provider satisfaction and reducing associated costs. Nonbeneficial treatment is defined here as the use of life-sustaining treatments delivered to patients who had been in the ICU for 5 days and did not survive to discharge. ⋯ Our study finds that Proactive Ethics Intervention, provided to all patients in a critical care setting for 5 days, and before an ethical conflict has been recognized, is ineffective in reducing overall length of hospital stay, ICU days, nonbeneficial treatments, or hospital costs. It is also not effective in increasing perceptions of quality of care by patients or providers.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2014
Multicenter StudyA Multibiomarker-Based Outcome Risk Stratification Model for Adult Septic Shock.
Clinical trials in septic shock continue to fail due, in part, to inequitable and sometimes unknown distribution of baseline mortality risk between study arms. Investigators advocate that interventional trials in septic shock require effective outcome risk stratification. We derived and tested a multibiomarker-based approach to estimate mortality risk in adults with septic shock. ⋯ We have derived, tested, calibrated, and validated a risk stratification tool and found that it reliably estimates the probability of mortality in adults with septic shock.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2014
Multicenter StudyThe Attributable Mortality of Acute Kidney Injury: A Sequentially Matched Analysis.
Acute kidney injury in the critically ill is an independent risk factor for adverse outcome. The magnitude of the impact of acute kidney injury on outcome, however, is still unclear. This study aimed to estimate the excess mortality attributable to acute kidney injury. ⋯ In general ICU patients, the absolute excess 90-day mortality statistically attributable to acute kidney injury is substantial (8.6%), and the population attributable risk was nearly 20%. Our findings are useful in planning suitably powered future clinical trials to prevent and treat acute kidney injury in critically ill patients.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2014
Multicenter StudyPhysical Complications in Acute Lung Injury Survivors: A 2-Year Longitudinal Prospective Study.
Survivors of severe critical illness frequently develop substantial and persistent physical complications, including muscle weakness, impaired physical function, and decreased health-related quality of life. Our objective was to determine the longitudinal epidemiology of muscle weakness, physical function, and health-related quality of life and their associations with critical illness and ICU exposures. ⋯ Muscle weakness is common after acute lung injury, usually recovering within 12 months. This weakness is associated with substantial impairments in physical function and health-related quality of life that continue beyond 24 months. These results provide valuable prognostic information regarding physical recovery after acute lung injury. Evidence-based methods to reduce the duration of bed rest during critical illness may be important for improving these long-term impairments.