Medicina intensiva
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To analyze mortality and resource consumption in patients with long stays in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). ⋯ Critical children with prolonged stay in the PICU show important morbidity and mortality, and an important consumption of healthcare resources. The adoption of specific measures permitting early identification of patients at risk of prolonged stay is needed in order to adapt therapeutic measures and available resources, and to improve treatment efficiency.
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Acute renal failure (ARF) is an independent risk factor associated with increased mortality during sepsis. Recent consensus definitions have allowed the standardization of research on the subject. The understanding of the physiopathology of ARF during sepsis is limited by the scarcity of histological studies and the inability to measure renal microcirculatory flows. ⋯ These include apoptosis, glomerular and medullary microcirculatory disorders, cell changes in response to the pro-inflammatory cascade characteristic of sepsis, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and damage induced by mechanical ventilation, among others. Sepsis associated ARF treatment is supportive. In general, renal replacement therapies can be grouped as intermittent or continuous, and as those whose primary objective is the replacement of impaired renal function, versus those whose main objective is to secure hemodynamic stability through the clearing of pro-inflammatory mediators.
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The importance of cardiac arrest as a health problem makes training in resuscitation a topic of great interest. It is necessary to enhance resuscitation training for all citizens, starting in schools and institutes, targeting teachers and nurses for training, to in turn become future trainers. The model of short courses with video-instruction and the use of mannequins is useful for the dissemination of resuscitation techniques. ⋯ Training through performance evaluation is a technique that should be implemented in all areas where cases of cardiac arrest are seen and the healthcare team has intervened. Simulation appears to be defined as the current and future modality for training in various medical areas, including of course the important field of resuscitation. Lastly, research in resuscitation training should be considered an example of translational science, where rigorous studies of skill acquisition with outcome measures serve to transfer the results to the clinical environment for analysis of their impact upon patient care.