Articles: critical-care.
-
Having a family member hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) can be a stressful experience for family members, encompassing both psychological and spiritual distress. With over 5 million ICU admissions annually in the United States, it is imperative to enhance the experiences and coping mechanisms of ICU family members. In particularly challenging situations, some family members even face psychological effects known as post-intensive care syndrome-family, which includes anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress. ⋯ This affects both their ICU experience, decision making, and outcomes for the patient and family. This process is also affected by characteristics of the family such as race, ethnicity, and economic status. This model helps identify gaps in research, including the need for randomized trials of spiritual care that identify mechanisms underlying outcomes and demonstrate impact of spiritual care, and consider race, ethnicity, and other characteristics.
-
Delays in reperfusion treatment in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients leads to higher morbidity and mortality. Previous reports for Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) suggests a 10-minute skid-to-skid (arrival to departure) time to achieve appropriate reperfusion times. However, there is no published data on whether this goal is achievable for a HEMS service. This study aims to see if a midwestern critical care service can consistently achieve a 10-minute helicopter skid-to-skid time or ground critical care service arrival to departure time. Further, comparing this metric between ground and helicopter transportations will help evaluate the ideal transportation method to optimize time to percutaneous intervention (PCI). ⋯ Our study found that a median EMS arrival to departure time of 10 min to transport STEMI patients was not consistently achieved via either helicopter or ground transportation.
-
Pediatric asthma is a significant cause of emergency department visits and hospital admissions. While most patients respond well to standard pharmacologic treatments, those with more severe disease frequently require noninvasive respiratory support (NRS) and adjunct therapies, or admission to an intensive care unit-a condition termed critical asthma. NRS modalities include high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), and noninvasive ventilation (NIV) to deliver standard air-oxygen mixtures or helium-oxygen (heliox). ⋯ Despite the growing use of NRS, robust evidence supporting its efficacy in pediatric critical asthma is limited, with few published clinical trials and a heavy reliance on observational studies to inform clinical practice. This narrative review explores the current evidence, physiological rationale, practical considerations, and future research directions for the use of NRS in pediatric critical asthma. The goal is to provide clinicians with a comprehensive overview of the benefits and limitations of NRS modalities to better inform therapeutic decisions and improve patient outcomes.
-
The inadequacy of intensive care medicine in low-resource settings (LRS) has become significantly more visible after the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations for establishing medical critical care are scarce and rarely include expert clinicians from LRS. ⋯ Delphi process identified a set of consensus-based statements on how to create a sustainable patient-centered medical intensive care in LRS.