Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Review
Pro/con debate: Should PaCO2 be tightly controlled in all patients with acute brain injuries?
You are the attending intensivist in a neurointensive care unit caring for a woman five days post-rupture of a cerebral aneurysm (World Federation of Neurological Surgeons Grade 4 and Fisher Grade 3). She is intubated for airway protection and mild hypoxemia related to an aspiration event at the time of aneurysm rupture, but is breathing spontaneously on the ventilator. Your patient is spontaneously hyperventilating with high tidal volumes despite minimal support and has developed significant hypocapnia. ⋯ You are also aware of the potential implications of tidal volume control if this patient were to develop the acute respiratory distress syndrome and the effect of permissive hypercapnia on her intracranial pressure. In this paper we provide a detailed and balanced examination of the issues pertaining to this clinical scenario, including suggestions for clinical management of ventilation, sedation and neuromonitoring. Until more definitive clinical trial evidence is available to guide practice, clinicians are forced to carefully weigh the potential benefits of tight carbon dioxide control against the potential risks in each individual patient based on the clinical issues at hand.
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Perioperative hemodynamic optimization, or goal-directed therapy (GDT), has been show to significantly decrease complications and risk of death in high-risk patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. An important aim of GDT is to prevent an imbalance between oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption in order to avoid the development of multiple organ dysfunction. ⋯ GDT guided by dynamic predictors of fluid responsiveness or functional hemodynamics with minimally invasive cardiac output monitoring is suitable for the majority of patients undergoing major surgery with expected significant volume shifts due to bleeding or other significant intravascular volume losses. For patients at higher risk of complications and death, such as those with advanced age and limited cardiorespiratory reserve, the addition of dobutamine or dopexamine to the treatment algorithm, to maximize oxygen delivery, is associated with better outcomes.
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Rates of tuberculosis (TB) are increasing in most west European nations. Patients with TB can be admitted to an ICU for a variety of reasons, including respiratory failure, multiorgan failure and decreased consciousness associated with central nervous system disease. TB is a treatable disease but the mortality for patients admitted with TB to an ICU remains high. ⋯ In this review reasons for ICU admission, methods of achieving a confident diagnosis through direct and inferred methods, anti-tuberculosis treatment (including steroid and other adjuvant therapies) and specific management problems with particular relevance to the intensivist are discussed. The role of therapeutic drug monitoring, judicious use of alternative regimes in the context of toxicity or organ dysfunction and when to suspect paradoxical tuberculosis reactions are also covered. Diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms are proposed to guide ICU doctors in the management of this sometimes complicated disease.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Whole body protein kinetics during hypocaloric and normocaloric feeding in critically ill patients.
Optimal feeding of critically ill patients in the ICU is controversial. Existing guidelines rest on rather weak evidence. Whole body protein kinetics may be an attractive technique for assessing optimal protein intake. In this study, critically ill patients were investigated during hypocaloric and normocaloric IV nutrition. ⋯ In the patient group studied, hypocaloric feeding was associated with a more negative protein balance, but the amino acid oxidation was not different. The protein kinetics measurements and the study's investigational protocol were useful for assessing the efficacy of nutrition support on protein metabolism in critically ill patients.
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The first ICUs were established in the late 1950s and the specialty of critical care medicine began to develop. Since those early days, huge improvements have been made in terms of technological advances and understanding of the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of the disease processes that affect critically ill patients. ⋯ Critical care medicine is one of the fastest-growing hospital specialties and, looking back, it is clear just how far we have come in such a relatively short period of time. With the ICU set to occupy an increasingly important place in hospitals worldwide, we must learn from the past and wisely embrace new developments in technology, therapeutics, and process, to ensure that the goals of critical care medicine are met in the future.