Revista Brasileira de terapia intensiva
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Rev Bras Ter Intensiva · Sep 2016
Observational StudyDe-escalation, adequacy of antibiotic therapy and culture positivity in septic patients: an observational study.
To evaluate the prevalence of antibiotic de-escalation in patients diagnosed with severe sepsis or septic shock at a public academic tertiary hospital and to evaluate antibiotic adequacy and culture positivity. ⋯ The adequacy rate of empirical antibiotic therapy was high, reflecting an active institutional policy of monitoring epidemiological profiles and institutional protocols on antimicrobial use. However, antibiotic de-escalation could have been implemented in a greater number of patients. De-escalation did not affect mortality rates.
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Rev Bras Ter Intensiva · Sep 2016
Different research designs and their characteristics in intensive care.
Different research designs have various advantages and limitations inherent to their main characteristics. Knowledge of the proper use of each design is of great importance to understanding the applicability of research findings to clinical epidemiology. In intensive care, a hierarchical classification of designs can often be misleading if the characteristics of the design in this context are not understood. One must therefore be alert to common problems in randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews/meta-analyses that address clinical issues related to the care of the critically ill patient.