Seminars in respiratory and critical care medicine
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Feb 2021
ReviewOptimal Sedation and Pain Management: A Patient- and Symptom-Oriented Paradigm.
In the critically ill patient, optimal pain and sedation management remains the cornerstone of achieving comfort, safety, and to facilitate complex life support interventions. Pain relief, using multimodal analgesia, is an integral component of any orchestrated approach to achieve clinically appropriate goals in critically ill patients. Sedative management, however, remains a significant challenge. ⋯ The use of multimodal analgesics, sedatives, and antipsychotics agents-that are easily titratable-reduces the overall quantum of sedatives and opioids, and reduces the risk of adverse events while maximizing clinical benefits. In addition, critical considerations regarding the choice of sedative agents should be given to factors such as age, medical versus operative diagnosis, and cardiovascular status. Specific populations such as trauma, neurological injury, and pregnancy should also be taken into account to maximize efficacy and reduce adverse events.
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Feb 2021
Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells Therapy for Sepsis and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
Sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) constitute devastating conditions with high morbidity and mortality. Sepsis results from abnormal host immune response, with evidence for both pro- and anti-inflammatory activation present from the earliest phases. The "proinflammatory" response predominates initially causing host injury, with later-phase sepsis characterized by immune cell hypofunction and opportunistic superinfection. ⋯ They possess diverse mechanisms of action of relevance to sepsis and ARDS, including direct and indirect antibacterial actions, potent effects on the innate and adaptive response, and pro-reparative effects. MSCs can be preactivated thereby potentiating their effects, while the use of their extracellular vesicles can avoid whole cell administration. While early-phase clinical trials suggest safety, considerable challenges exist in moving forward to phase III efficacy studies, and to implementation as a therapy should they prove effective.
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After fluid administration for vasodilatory shock, vasopressors are commonly infused. Causes of vasodilatory shock include septic shock, post-cardiovascular surgery, post-acute myocardial infarction, postsurgery, other causes of an intense systemic inflammatory response, and drug -associated anaphylaxis. Therapeutic vasopressors are hormones that activate receptors-adrenergic: α1, α2, β1, β2; angiotensin II: AG1, AG2; vasopressin: AVPR1a, AVPR1B, AVPR2; dopamine: DA1, DA2. ⋯ In pediatric septic shock, vasopressors, epinephrine, and norepinephrine are recommended equally because there is no clear evidence that supports the use of one vasoactive agent. Dopamine is recommended when epinephrine or norepinephrine is not available. New strategies include perhaps patients will be started on several vasopressors with complementary mechanisms of action, patients may be selected for particular vasopressors according to predictive biomarkers, and novel vasopressors may emerge with fewer adverse effects.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in trauma patients, and can be classified into mild, moderate, and severe by the Glasgow coma scale (GCS). Prehospital, initial emergency department, and subsequent intensive care unit (ICU) management of severe TBI should focus on avoiding secondary brain injury from hypotension and hypoxia, with appropriate reversal of anticoagulation and surgical evacuation of mass lesions as indicated. Utilizing principles based on the Monro-Kellie doctrine and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), a surrogate for cerebral blood flow (CBF) should be maintained by optimizing mean arterial pressure (MAP), through fluids and vasopressors, and/or decreasing intracranial pressure (ICP), through bedside maneuvers, sedation, hyperosmolar therapy, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage, and, in refractory cases, barbiturate coma or decompressive craniectomy (DC). ⋯ Optimization of the acute care of severe TBI should include recognition and treatment of paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity (PSH), early seizure prophylaxis, venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis, and nutrition optimization. Despite this, severe TBI remains a devastating injury and palliative care principles should be applied early. To better affect the challenging long-term outcomes of severe TBI, more and continued high quality research is required.
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Critical care clinicians strive to reverse the disease process and are frequently faced with difficult end-of-life (EoL) situations, which include transitions from curative to palliative care, avoidance of disproportionate care, withholding or withdrawing therapy, responding to advance treatment directives, as well as requests for assistance in dying. This article presents a summary of the most common issues encountered by intensivists caring for patients around the end of their life. Topics explored are the practices around limitations of life-sustaining treatment, with specific mention to the thorny subject of assisted dying and euthanasia, as well as the difficulties encountered regarding the adoption of advance care directives in clinical practice and the importance of integrating palliative care in the everyday practice of critical-care physicians. The aim of this article is to enhance understanding around the complexity of EoL decisions, highlight the intricate cultural, religious, and social dimensions around death and dying, and identify areas of potential improvement for individual practice.