Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Increasing complexity and costs are a fundamental problem in critical care medicine, leading researchers to study opportunities and threats to continue to provide high-quality care in a more efficient health system. Over the past decades, we have learned from industrial methods that quality improvement and resource management can help achieve these results. Last year, Critical Care published a number of papers that highlight key points of critical care resource management. Each of these is grouped into one of three broad categories, based on domains of quality: (a) outcomes, in which we review long-term outcome data with an emphasis on the aging population, strategies to help mitigate the psychological burden of critical care, adverse events, and the appropriate use of resources, such as prolonged mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit (ICU) beds; (b) processes of care, in which we review variability in the provision of critical care, owing to gender, insurance status, and delays in ICU admission; knowledge translation studies in critical care; goal-directed therapy for postoperative patients and decision-making in the ICU; and (c) structure, in which we review strategies to improve quality through changes in design and the structural limitations to provide care in resource-limited settings.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Medical-grade honey does not reduce skin colonization at central venous catheter-insertion sites of critically ill patients: a randomized controlled trial.
Catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) associated with short-term central venous catheters (CVCs) in intensive care unit (ICU) patients are a major clinical problem. Bacterial colonization of the skin at the CVC insertion site is an important etiologic factor for CRBSI. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of medical-grade honey in reducing bacterial skin colonization at insertion sites. ⋯ Medical-grade honey does not affect colonization of the skin at CVC insertion sites in ICU patients when applied in addition to standard disinfection with 0.5% chlorhexidine in 70% alcohol.
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Contributions from the neurosciences to Critical Care in 2011 covered an array of topics. We learned about potential biomarkers for, and the effect of cerebral oxygen metabolism on, delirium, in addition to treatment of the latter. A group of investigators studied surface cooling in healthy awake volunteers, and incidence of infection associated with therapeutic hypothermia. ⋯ Results of studies regarding the diagnosis and vascular complications of meningitis were reported. Traumatic brain injury received its share of articles addressing therapy with hypertonic saline and surgical decompression, the development of coagulopathy, and biomarkers to help with prognostication. Finally, research on the treatment of Guillain-Barre syndrome in children, prediction of long-term need of ventilatory support, and pathophysiology of critical illness polyneuropathy and myopathy were reported.
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of ultrasound (US)-guided percutaneous tracheostomy (PCT) and the incidence of complications in critically ill, obese patients. ⋯ This study demonstrated that US-guided PCT is feasible in obese patients with a low complication rate. Obesity may not constitute a contra-indication for US-guided PCT. A US examination provides information on cervical anatomy and hence modifies and guides choice of the PCT puncture site.
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Morbid obesity and its consequences are considered risk factors for adverse outcome in trauma, although the pathophysiologic mechanisms are incompletely understood. The aim of this study was to compare initial resuscitation, treatment, and short-term outcome of severely injured patients by body mass index (BMI). ⋯ In contrast to the mostly American literature, only a low percentage of trauma patients at a European trauma center are obese. These patients are at risk of higher mortality from persistent hemorrhagic shock in the initial phase after trauma, which may potentially be related to relative hypovolemia during the resuscitation period. In the later course of treatment, no significant differences exist with respect to specific complications, hospital stay, or in-hospital mortality.