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Protective mechanical ventilation is currently accepted as a key strategy for the management of acute lung injury (ALI) and its most severe form, acute respiratory distress syndrome. The study by de Prost and ...
Electroencephalography (EEG) has a central role in the outcome prognostication in subjects with anoxic/hypoxic encephalopathy following a cardiac arrest (CA). Continuous EEG monitoring (cEEG) has been consiste...
Previous research has suggested that deterioration in oral health can occur following hospitalisation. The impact of such deterioration could increase the risk of oral disease, reduce quality of life and incre...
Whether the egg or the chicken came first remains debated, although the debate is not critical for those who love eating omelets. At least, it is well accepted that one needs to break eggs to fry an omelet. In...
Acute kidney injury (AKI), due to its increasing incidence, associated morbidityand mortality, and potential for development of chronic kidney disease withacceleration to end-stage renal disease, has become of...
Procalcitonin has been proposed as a specific biomarker of bacterial infections and has been related to the severity of sepsis. The prognostic ability of the initial concentrations of procalcitonin in sepsis i...
Few clinical trials have provided evidence that epinephrine administration after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) improves long-term survival. Here we determined whether prehospital epinephrine administra...
Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) suffer from sleep deprivation arising from nursing interventions and ambient noise. This may exacerbate confusion and ICU-related delirium. The World Health Organization...
This prospective study aimed to assess whether use of the subxiphoid acoustic window in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) can be an accurate alternative in the absence of an apical view to assess hemodynami...
The goal of non-operative management (NOM) for blunt splenic trauma (BST) is to preserve the spleen. The advantages of NOM for minor splenic trauma have been extensively reported, whereas its value for the mor...
The management of suspected central venous catheter (CVC)-related sepsis by guide wire exchange (GWX) is not recommended. However, GWX for new antimicrobial surface treated (AST) triple lumen CVCs has never be...
The pupillary dilatation reflex may present an objective method of predicting whether sedated patients require additional analgesia for painful procedures. Behavioural pain assessment tools identify pain only ...
The clinical use of serial quantitative computed tomography (CT) to characterize lung disease and guide the optimization of mechanical ventilation in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is...
Central venous catheters (CVCs) are indispensable in modern pediatric medicine. CVCs provide secure vascular access, but are associated with a risk of severe complications, in particular bloodstream infection....
A reliable prediction of successful weaning from respiratory support may be crucial for the overall outcome of the critically ill patient. The electrical activity of the diaphragm (EAdi) allows one to monitor ...
Recent studies challenge the beneficial role of artificial nutrition provided to critically ill patients and point out the limitations of existing studies in this area. We take a differing view of the existing...
Platelets display a number of properties besides the crucial function of repairing damaged vascular endothelium and stopping bleeding; these are exploited to benefit patients receiving platelet component trans...
Bacterial sepsis and septic shock are complex inflammatory disorders associated with a systemic inflammatory response syndrome. In the most severe cases of infection, an overzealous release of pro-inflammatory...
Accumulating evidence indicates that diaphragmatic weakness is common and frequently severe in mechanically ventilated patients. Supinski and Callahan now report that infection is a major risk factor for diaph...
The occurrence of moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome due totraumatic brain injury is not uncommon and is associated with an extremely highincidence of morbidity and mortality. Owing to the ...
Whole-body computed tomography (CT) has gained importance in the early diagnostic phase of trauma care. However, the diagnostic value of CT for seriously injured patients is not thoroughly clarified. This stud...
To gain new insights into renal perfusion and pathogenesis of acute kidney injury in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, we need new techniques to evaluate renal microcirculation. In addition, a bedside techni...
The relationship between hyperoxemia and outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is controversial. We sought to investigate the independent relationship between hyperoxemia and long-term mortalit...
The use of urinary output and vital signs to guide initial burn resuscitation may lead to suboptimal resuscitation. Invasive hemodynamic monitoring may result in over-resuscitation. This study aimed to evaluat...
Leukocyte infiltration is central to the development of acute lung injury, but it is not known how mechanical ventilation strategy alters the distribution or activation of inflammatory cells. We explored how p...
Use of colistin methanesulfonate (CMS) was abandoned in the 1970s because of excessive nephrotoxicity, but it has been reintroduced as a last-resort treatment for extensively drug-resistant infections caused b...
The diagnosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) based on composite scoring systems using routinely available coagulation tests has been greatly facilitated. Such scoring instruments not only adeq...
Antiarrhythmia agents have been used in the treatment of cardiac arrest, and we aimed to review the relevant clinical controlled trials to assess the effects of antiarrhythmics during cardiopulmonary resuscita...
Isolated vital signs (for example, heart rate or systolic blood pressure) have been shown unreliable in the assessment of hypovolemic shock. In contrast, the Shock Index (SI), defined by the ratio of heart rat...
Malnutrition is a frequent problem associated with detrimental clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. To avoid malnutrition, most studies focus on the prevention of inadequate nutrition delivery, wherea...
In patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), administration of an appropriate empirical antimicrobial treatment is associated with improved outcomes, leading to the prescription of broad-spectrum an...
Endothelial barrier breakdown is a hallmark of septic shock, and proteins that physiologically regulate endothelial barrier integrity are emerging as promising biomarkers of septic shock development. Patients ...
Patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are highly heterogeneous but current therapies are rather uniform and largely supportive. In the previous issue of Critical Care, Clark and colleagues repo...
A simple cheap meningococcal sepsis prognostic score based on readily available, rapid, objective laboratory base excess and platelet count was developed and validated retrospectively. This BEP score should fa...
Open visitation has been highly recommended by critical care groups but is not prevalent in practice. Here we discuss the present study on current visitation practices in US ICUs and discuss several factors af...
Sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock are common conditions with high mortality. Their early diagnosis in the Emergency Department (ED) is one of the keys to improving survival. Procalcitonin (PCT) has been u...
Noninvasive continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is recognized as an effective treatment for severe airway obstruction in young children. The aim of the present study was to compare a clinical setting wi...
Hydroxyethyl starch (HES) is a commonly used colloid in critically ill patients. However, its safety has been questioned in recent studies and meta-analyses.
Metabolic dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of sepsis yet little is known about local changes in key organs such as the heart. The aim of this study was to compare myocardial metabolic changes by direct meas...
Critical Care