Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2019
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Use in Cardiogenic Shock: Impact of Age on In-Hospital Mortality, Length of Stay, and Costs.
Increasing age is a well-recognized risk factor for in-hospital mortality in patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiogenic shock, but the shape of this relationship is unknown. In addition, the impact of age on hospital length of stay, patterns of patient disposition, and costs has been incompletely characterized. ⋯ Age is linearly associated with increasing in-hospital mortality in individuals receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiogenic shock without evidence of a threshold effect. Median time-to-death is approximately 1 week. One third of patients are discharged from the hospital alive, but the median time-to-discharge is 1 month. Median length of stay ranges from 9 to 17 days depending on age. Hospitalization costs exceed $100,000 in all age groups.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2019
Efficacy and Safety of Bronchial Artery Embolization on Hemoptysis in Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension: A Pilot Prospective Cohort Study.
Managing hemoptysis in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension can be challenging due to the difficulties in maintaining coagulation homeostasis in affected patients. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of bronchial artery embolization in treating hemoptysis in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension patients. ⋯ Bronchial artery embolization procedure demonstrated effectiveness and safety to treat hemoptysis in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension patients at our center, but further controlled studies are needed before it can be considered as an effective therapy for these patients.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2019
Multicenter Study Observational StudyA Prognostic Enrichment Strategy for Selection of Patients With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Clinical Trials.
Incomplete or ambiguous evidence for identifying high-risk patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome for enrollment into randomized controlled trials has come at the cost of an unreasonable number of negative trials. We examined a set of selected variables early in acute respiratory distress syndrome to determine accurate prognostic predictors for selecting high-risk patients for randomized controlled trials. ⋯ Combined thresholds for patient's age, PaO2/FIO2, plateau pressure, and extrapulmonary organ failure provides prognostic enrichment accuracy for stratifying and selecting acute respiratory distress syndrome patients for randomized controlled trials.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2019
Multicenter StudyTherapeutic Plasma Exchange in Children With Thrombocytopenia-Associated Multiple Organ Failure: The Thrombocytopenia-Associated Multiple Organ Failure Network Prospective Experience.
The objective was to compare the resolution of organ dysfunction, 28-day mortality, and biochemical markers in children with thrombocytopenia-associated multiple organ failure who received therapeutic plasma exchange versus no therapeutic plasma exchange. ⋯ Therapeutic plasma exchange use in thrombocytopenia-associated multiple organ failure was associated with a decrease in organ dysfunction. After accounting for several risk factors, 28-day all-cause mortality was lower in children treated with therapeutic plasma exchange compared with those receiving no therapeutic plasma exchange. A multicenter randomized clinical trial is necessary to determine a causal relationship.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2019
What Does the Word "Treatable" Mean? Implications for Communication and Decision-Making in Critical Illness.
To explore how nonphysicians and physicians interpret the word "treatable" in the context of critical illness. ⋯ Physician use of the word "treatable" may lead patients or surrogates to derive unwarranted good news and false encouragement to pursue treatment, even when physicians have explicitly stated information to the contrary. Further work is needed to determine the extent to which the word "treatable" and its cognates contribute to widespread decision-making and communication challenges in critical care, including discordance about prognosis, misconceptions that palliative treatments are curative, and disputes about potentially inappropriate or futile treatment.