Current opinion in critical care
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We aim to review the epidemiology of pneumonia with bacterial and viral coinfection, the pathogenesis and clinical impact of coinfection along with the current state of treatment and outcomes. ⋯ Bacterial and viral coinfection is increasingly recognized as an underlying etiology for community- and hospital-acquired infections. Coinfections may be a risk factor for ICU admission, severity of disease, and mortality. Clinicians must be aware of these coinfections for appropriate management and prognostication, as well as for the prevention of nosocomial spread of viral illness.
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The aim is to demonstrate that ICU physicians should play a pivotal role in developing regional anesthesia techniques that are underused in critically ill patients despite the proven facts in perioperative and long-term pain, organ dysfunction, and postsurgery patient health-related quality of life improvement. ⋯ Promoting regional anesthesia/analgesia in ICU surgical/trauma patients could undoubtedly limit the risk of complications, ICU/hospital stay, and improve patient's outcome. The use of regional anesthesia permits a high doses opioid use limitation which is mandatory and should be considered as feasible and well tolerated in ICU.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2017
ReviewReducing catheter-associated urinary tract infections in the ICU.
Patients in the ICU are at higher risk for catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) due to more frequent use of catheters and lower threshold for obtaining urine cultures. This review provides a summary of CAUTI reduction strategies that are specific to the intensive care setting. ⋯ CAUTI reduction is possible in the ICU through a combination of reduced catheter usage, improved catheter care and stewardship of urine cultures.
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Death following surgery remains a major cause of death worldwide, and ICU admission following major surgery is considered a standard of care in many healthcare systems. However, ICU resources are finite and expensive, thus identifying those most likely to benefit is of great importance. ⋯ Identifying those most at risk of death and complications following surgery and preventing them is the major challenge of perioperative care in the coming decades. Future research should focus on how postoperative care can best be structured to provide optimum care to patients within available resources. Incidence of complications or failure to rescue (FtR) may provide useful metrics in future research.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Oct 2017
ReviewHow to better identify patients at high risk of postoperative complications?
Preoperative risk assessment and perioperative factors may help identify patients at increased risk of postoperative complications and allow postoperative management strategies that improve patient outcomes. This review summarizes historical and more recent scoring systems for predicting patients with increased morbidity and mortality in the postoperative period. ⋯ Preoperative clinical risk indices and risk calculators estimate surgical risk with moderate accuracy. Surgery-specific risk calculators are helpful in identifying patients at increased risk of 30-day mortality. Particular attention should be paid to intraoperative hemodynamic instability, blood loss, extent of surgical excision and volume of resection.