Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2016
Application of a Framework to Assess the Usefulness of Alternative Sepsis Criteria.
The current definition of sepsis is life-threatening, acute organ dysfunction secondary to a dysregulated host response to infection. Criteria to operationalize this definition can be judged by six domains of usefulness (reliability, content, construct and criterion validity, measurement burden, and timeliness). The relative importance of these six domains depends on the intended purpose for the criteria (clinical care, basic and clinical research, surveillance, or quality improvement [QI] and audit). ⋯ Predictably, clinical care criteria, which emphasized timeliness and low burden and therefore used vital signs and routine laboratory tests, had the greater case identification with lowest mortality. QI/audit criteria, which emphasized reliability and criterion validity, used discharge information and had the lowest case identification with highest mortality. Using this framework to identify the purpose and apply domains of usefulness can help with the evaluation of existing sepsis diagnostic criteria and provide a roadmap for future work.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2016
ReviewLong-Term Outcome Following Tracheostomy in Critical Care: A Systematic Review.
The prevalence and impact of longer-term outcomes following percutaneous tracheostomy, particularly tracheal stenosis, are unclear. Previous meta-analyses addressing this problem have been confounded by the low prevalence of tracheal stenosis and a limited number of studies. ⋯ Considering comparative data, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of tracheal stenosis or major bleeding between percutaneous and surgical tracheostomy. In relation to wound infection, we have found a reduction associated with the original Ciaglia technique when compared with that with the surgical tracheostomy. Considering all published data reporting long-term outcomes pooled proportion meta-analysis indicates a trend toward a higher rate of tracheal stenosis and an increased risk of major bleeding and wound infection for surgical tracheostomies. This finding may be biased as a result of targeted patient selection, and further, high-quality long-term comparative data are needed to confirm these findings.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2016
Palliative Care Utilization in Nontraumatic Intracerebral Hemorrhage in the United States.
Palliative care is now recognized as an essential component of comprehensive care in serious illness that interferes with quality of life. We explored utilization of palliative care in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage at a population level using a large national database. ⋯ An apparent increasing trend of palliative care utilization in intracerebral hemorrhage has occurred over the last decade. After clinical severity adjustment, gender and racial differences and hospital characteristics appear to influence palliative care use among intracerebral hemorrhage patients in the United States.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2016
Epidemiology of Massive Transfusion: A Binational Study From Sweden and Denmark.
There is an increasing focus on massive transfusion, but there is a paucity of comprehensive descriptions of the massively transfused patients and their outcomes. The objective of this study is to describe the incidence rate of massive transfusion, patient characteristics, and the mortality of massively transfused patients. ⋯ This large-scale study based on nationwide data from Sweden and Denmark describes the complete range of massive transfusion. We report a nonnegligible incidence and both a high absolute mortality and high standardized mortality ratio. The general pattern was similar for Sweden and Denmark, and we believe that similar patterns may be found in other high-resource countries. The study provides a relevant background for clinicians and researchers for designing future studies in this field.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2016
Comparative StudyComparison Between Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist and Pressure Support Ventilation Levels in Terms of Respiratory Effort.
To understand the potential equivalence between neurally adjusted ventilatory assist and pressure support ventilation levels in terms of respiratory muscle unloading. To compare the respiratory pattern, variability, synchronization, and neuromuscular coupling within comparable ranges of assistance. ⋯ In patients recovering from acute respiratory failure, levels of neurally adjusted ventilatory assist between 0.5 and 2.5 cm H2O/μvolt are comparable to pressure support levels ranging from 7 to 25 cm H2O in terms of respiratory muscle unloading. Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist provides better patient-ventilator interactions but can be sometimes excessively sensitive to electrical activity of the diaphragm in terms of triggering.