Current opinion in critical care
-
Functional haemodynamic monitoring is the assessment of the dynamic interactions of haemodynamic variables in response to a defined perturbation. ⋯ Functional haemodynamic monitoring approaches are increasing in numbers, conditions in which they are useful and resuscitation protocol applications. This is a rapidly evolving field whose pluripotential is just now being realized.
-
Many efforts have been made in the last decades to improve outcome in patients who are successfully resuscitated from sudden cardiac arrest. Despite some advances, postanoxic encephalopathy remains the most common cause of death among those patients and several investigations have focused on early neuroprotection in this setting. ⋯ Early cooling may contribute to enhance neuroprotection after cardiac arrest. Hemodynamic optimization is mandatory to avoid cerebral hypoperfusion in this setting. The combination of such interventions with other promising neuroprotective strategies should be evaluated in future large clinical studies.
-
Curr Opin Crit Care · Jun 2014
ReviewTowards cardiopulmonary resuscitation without vasoactive drugs.
Whereas there is clear evidence for improved survival with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation during cardiac arrest management, there is today lacking evidence that any of the recommended and used drugs lead to any long-term benefit for the patients. In this review, we try to discuss our current view on why advanced life support (ALS) today can be performed without the use of drugs, and instead gain all focus on improving the tasks we know improve survival: CPR and defibrillation. ⋯ There is currently no evidence to support any specific drugs during cardiac arrest. Good-quality CPR, early defibrillation and goal-directed postresuscitation care is more important. Healthcare systems should not prioritize implementation of unproven drugs before good quality of care can be documented. More drug studies are indeed required, and future research needs to incorporate better diagnostic tools to test more specific and tailored therapies that account for underlying causes and individual responsiveness.
-
The prognosis of patients with postanoxic coma (PAC) after cardiac arrest is a challenging task for clinicians. The need for early and accurate prognostic predictors is crucial. Treatment with therapeutic hypothermia and sedation alters the reliability of neurological examination. Considering the extensive literature existing on this topic, we aimed to provide a practical approach on how to predict outcome in patients with PAC, particularly in those treated with therapeutic hypothermia. ⋯ For reliable prediction of outcome in patients with PAC, various prognostic methods should be combined with the standard neurological examination in a multimodal approach.