Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Volatile versus propofol sedation after cardiac valve surgery: a single-center prospective randomized controlled trial.
Optimal intensive care of patients undergoing valve surgery is a complex balancing act between sedation for monitoring and timely postoperative awakening. It remains unclear, if these requirements can be fulfilled by volatile sedations in intensive care medicine in an efficient manner. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the time to extubation and secondary the workload required. ⋯ Using volatile sedation is associated with few minutes additional workload in assembling and enables a significantly accelerated evaluation of vulnerable patient groups. Volatile sedation has considerable advantages and emerges as a safe sedation technique in our vulnerable study population.
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Prehospital triage and treatment of patients with acute coma is challenging for rescue services, as the underlying pathological conditions are highly heterogenous. Recently, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) has been identified as a biomarker of intracranial hemorrhage. The aim of this prospective study was to test whether prehospital GFAP measurements on a point-of-care device have the potential to rapidly differentiate intracranial hemorrhage from other causes of acute coma. ⋯ Increased GFAP plasma concentrations in patients with acute coma identify intracranial hemorrhage with high diagnostic accuracy. Prehospital GFAP measurements on a point-of-care platform allow rapid stratification according to the underlying cause of coma by rescue services. This could have major impact on triage and management of these critically ill patients.
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Observational Study
Vitamin D metabolism in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury: a prospective observational study.
Vitamin D deficiency in critically ill patients is associated with poor outcomes, and vitamin D supplementation is recommended for patients with chronic kidney disease. Whether acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with altered Vitamin D metabolism is unknown. We aimed to compare the longitudinal profiles of serum 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D concentrations in critically ill patients with and without moderate to severe AKI and explore the impact of renal recovery and parathyroid hormone (PTH). ⋯ Critically ill patients with moderate-to-severe AKI have significantly lower serum 1,25(OH)2D concentrations than similarly sick patients without AKI but there was no difference in serum 25(OH)D concentrations. Recovery of AKI was associated with a rise in serum 1,25(OH)2D concentrations. More research is needed to investigate the health benefits and safety of supplementation with active vitamin D in critically ill patients with moderate-to-severe AKI. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02869919), registered on 16 May 2016.
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Observational Study
Facial appearance associates with longitudinal multi-organ failure: an ICU cohort study.
Facial appearance, whether consciously or subconsciously assessed, may affect clinical assessment and treatment strategies in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Nevertheless, the association between objective clinical measurement of facial appearance and multi-organ failure is currently unknown. The objective of this study was to examine whether facial appearance at admission is associated with longitudinal evaluation of multi-organ failure. ⋯ The scoring of patients' facial cues, primarily the extent of eye-opening and facial colour, provided valuable insights into the disease state and progression of the disease of critically ill patients. The utilization of advanced monitoring techniques that incorporate facial appearance holds promise for enhancing future intensive care support.