Current opinion in critical care
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To describe why the prediction of ICU outcomes is essential to underpin critical care quality improvement programmes. ⋯ Risk-adjusted mortality has strong support from the critical care community as a quality indicator for benchmarking ICU performance but is dependent on up-to-date, accurate risk models. ICU outcome prediction can also contribute to both randomized and nonrandomized research and potentially contribute to individual patient management, although generic risk models should not be used to guide individual treatment decisions.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2014
ReviewVeno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for adult cardiovascular failure.
To examine the utility and technical challenges of applying veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for acute cardiovascular failure in adults with acute and chronic causes of heart failure. ⋯ Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is an expensive, complex, resource intensive support. It is essential that its future use be guided by evidence obtained from centres that have demonstrated timely, safe support.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2014
ReviewIs there still a role for low-dose dopamine use in acute heart failure?
Acute heart failure (AHF) is a major health problem worldwide, with no proven therapy. Low-dose dopamine has been used in this entity to improve renal outcomes in the past decades. The aim of this article is to review the former and recent clinical trials about the use of low-dose dopamine in AHF. ⋯ On the basis of the current data, there is no role for the routine use of low-dose dopamine in nonhypotensive patients with AHF. Further studies are needed to define the role of low-dose dopamine in patients with AHF and hypotension. Until the availability of more data, the use of dopamine in AHF should be individualized.
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Because of heart-lung interactions, weaning from mechanical ventilation induces strong hemodynamic changes that can lead to weaning-induced cardiac failure. Cardiac patients are particularly at risk for this complication. In this review, we will summarize the most recent advances concerning the mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of weaning-induced cardiac failure. ⋯ Nowadays, the diagnosis of weaning-induced pulmonary edema can be easily made. Identifying such an event is important as an appropriate treatment, guided by the suspected mechanisms leading to the cardiac failure, should hasten weaning from mechanical ventilation.