Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Severe sepsis can be a catastrophic condition that is often associated with poor outcomes. The early diagnosis and management of the condition are vital in order to improve the chances of survival. However, owing to the syndromal nature of its definition and the lack of a biomarker able to accurately confirm the condition, the diagnosis of sepsis is challenging. Even more challenging is the prediction of how these patients will respond to the therapy and whether they will survive the intensive care and the hospital admission.
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As data from Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in intensive care unit (ICU) are still scarce, our objectives were to assess the morbidity and mortality of ICU-acquired CDI. ⋯ If treated early, ICU-acquired CDI is not independently associated with an increased mortality and impacts marginally the ICU length of stay.
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ABSTRACT: Patients in ICUs represent a relatively small subgroup of hospitalised patients, but they account for approximately 25% of all hospital infections. Approximately 30% of ICU patients suffer from infection as a complication of critical illness, which increases the length of ICU stay, morbidity, mortality and cost. Gram-negative bacteria are the predominant cause of ICU-related infections and with the rise in multidrug-resistant strains we should focus our attention on nonantibiotic strategies in the prevention and treatment of nosocomial infections. ⋯ Some of the beneficial effects appear to be associated with improvement in gastrointestinal barrier function, restoration of normal intestinal permeability and motility, modification of the balance of intestinal microbiota and immunomodulation. However, the information we have to date on the use of probiotics in the critical care setting is difficult to interpret due to small sample sizes, differences in ICU populations, the variety of probiotic combinations studied and differences in administration techniques. In this review we shall examine the use of probiotics in the critical care setting, look at some of the proposed mechanisms of action and discuss their potential benefits and drawbacks.