Articles: critical-illness.
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Critical care clinics · Jul 2024
ReviewCritical Illness Outside the Intensive Care Unit: Research Challenges in Emergency and Prehospital Settings.
Patients with acute critical illness require prompt interventions, yet high-quality evidence supporting many investigations and treatments is lacking. Clinical research in this setting is challenging due to the need for immediate treatment and the inability of patients to provide informed consent. Attempts to obtain consent from surrogate decision-makers can be intrusive and lead to unacceptable delays to treatment. These problems may be overcome by pragmatic approaches to study design and the use of supervised waivers of consent, which is ethical and appropriate in situations where there is high risk of poor outcome and a paucity of proven effective treatment.
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Intensive care medicine · Jul 2024
Multicenter StudyTreatment of positive catheter tip culture without bloodstream infections in critically ill patients. A case-cohort study from the OUTCOMEREA network.
This study aimed to evaluate the impact on subsequent infections and mortality of an adequate antimicrobial therapy within 48 h after catheter removal in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with positive catheter tip culture. ⋯ Antimicrobial therapy was not associated with decreased risk of subsequent infection or death in short-term catheter tip colonization in critically ill patients. Antibiotics may be unnecessary for positive catheter tip cultures.
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Multicenter Study
Achieving Goals of Care Decisions in Chronic Critical Illness: A Multi-Institutional Qualitative Study.
Physicians, patients, and families alike perceive a need to improve how goals of care (GOC) decisions occur in chronic critical illness (CCI), but little is currently known about this decision-making process. ⋯ Intensivists described a complex time- and labor-intensive group process to achieve GOC decision-making in CCI. System-level interventions that improve how information is shared between physicians and decrease logistical and relational barriers to timely and consistent communication are key to improving GOC decision-making in CCI.
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The validity of the traditional nutritional assessment tools in intensive care settings might be compromised when the patient has conditions such as oedema and inflammation. Ultrasound (US) is considered a non-invasive, bedside tool that can be utilized to assess changes in muscle mass. Hence, US could guide healthcare practitioners in identifying the varying degrees of malnutrition and adjusting the nutritional prescription accordingly. ⋯ Overall, the data suggest that using US as part of the standard anthropometric assessment for critically ill patients is a promising tool to track variations in muscle mass. This has the potential to enhance nutritional prescription and tailor the provision of protein and energy to critically ill patients based on their lean body mass measurements. Therefore, it is recommended to train dietitians on utilizing US for body composition measurements.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jul 2024
Observational StudyAdherence to a restrictive red blood cell transfusion strategy in critically ill patients: An observational study.
Randomized controlled trials relatively consistently show that restrictive red blood cell (RBC) transfusion strategies are safe and associated with similar outcomes compared to liberal transfusion strategies in critically ill patients. Based on these data, the general threshold for RBC transfusion was changed to 70 g/L at a 9-bed tertiary level intensive care unit in September 2020. Implementation measures included lectures, webinars and feedback during clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate how implementation of a restrictive transfusion strategy influenced RBC usage, haemoglobin trigger levels and adherence to prescribed trigger levels. ⋯ Implementation of a restrictive transfusion trigger in a critical care setting resulted in lasting decreased RBC transfusion use and costs, decreased prescribed and actual haemoglobin trigger levels and improved adherence to prescribed haemoglobin trigger levels.