Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · May 2015
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyImproving Use of Targeted Temperature Management After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.
International guidelines recommend use of targeted temperature management following resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. This treatment, however, is often neglected or delayed. ⋯ Simple quality improvement interventions significantly increased the rates of achieving successful targeted temperature management following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a large network of hospitals but did not improve clinical outcomes.
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Critical care medicine · May 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialPatient Load Effects on Response Time to Critical Arrhythmias in Cardiac Telemetry: A Randomized Trial.
Remotely monitored patients may be at risk for a delayed response to critical arrhythmias if the telemetry watchers who monitor them are subject to an excessive patient load. There are no guidelines or studies regarding the appropriate number of patients that a single watcher may safely and effectively monitor. Our objective was to determine the impact of increasing the number of patients monitored on response time to simulated cardiac arrest. ⋯ As participants monitored more patients in a laboratory setting, their performance with respect to recognizing critical and noncritical events declined. This study has implications for the design of remote telemetry work and other patient monitoring tasks in critical and intermediate care units.
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Critical care medicine · May 2015
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyVolatile-Based Short-Term Sedation in Cardiac Surgical Patients: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial.
To evaluate the differences in extubation times in a group of cardiac surgical patients who were anesthetized and sedated with either IV propofol or inhaled volatile anesthetic agents. ⋯ Inhaled volatile anesthesia and sedation facilitates faster extubation times in comparison with IV propofol for patient undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.