Articles: critical-care.
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To compare the cases of child abuse (CA) with other admissions in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for differences in patient-specific health care costs, severity of illness (SI) and mortality, and describe their outcome. ⋯ These results confirm that interventional medical care in response to severe CA is very costly and the ultimate outcome is significantly worse than other diseases. Therefore, we believe it is imperative to allocate resources to prevention.
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To survey physicians' attitudes toward the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) and to assess physicians' knowledge of pulmonary artery catheterization. ⋯ The results of this mail survey/examination reflect the current attitudes and knowledge of the responding U.S. physician members of the Society of Critical Care Medicine regarding the PAC. The majority of the respondents are in favor of a prospective, randomized, controlled trial involving the PAC; 95% of the respondents feel that a moratorium on further use of the PAC is currently not warranted. Rather than a call for such a moratorium, a call for the development and maintenance of educational, credentialing, and continuous quality improvement policies involving the PAC is warranted and overdue.
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Enferm. Infecc. Microbiol. Clin. · Aug 1997
[Intensive care for patients with the human immunodeficiency virus].
HIV infection is of special importance in Spain, occasionally requiring the use of intensive care units (ICU) in the management of these cases. ⋯ Respiratory failure produced by Pneumocystis carinii or by other germs is the most frequent cause for ICU admission of patients with HIV infection. Renal failure, lymphopenia, and hypoalbuminemia are predictors of mortality in almost 50% of the cases.
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This is the third part in the series Care is Critical which looks at the more complex technological interventions nurses may now have to deal with on general wards or in the community. This article looks at continuous positive airway pressure, an oxygen delivery system which can relieve significant respiratory distress in some cases. The first two were published on June 25.