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Hypocholesterolemia is an important observation following trauma. In a study of critically ill trauma patients, mean cholesterol levels were significantly lower (119 ± 44 mg/dl) than expected values (201 ± 17 ...
The objective of the present study was to evaluate the opinion of Portuguese intensive care physicians regarding 'do-not-resuscitate' (DNR) orders and decisions to withhold/withdraw treatment.
We examined the literature relating to the safe care of acutely ill hospitalized patients, and found that there are substantial opportunities for improvement. Recent research suggests substantial benefit may b...
To measure the mass transfer and clearance of procalcitonin (PCT) in patients with septic shock during continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH), and to assess the mechanisms of elimination of PCT.
The present study was conducted to assess the value of serum concentration of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), sepsis and septic shock w...
Our primary objective was to determine the impact of traumatic injury, onset of infection, organ/metabolic dysfunction, and mortality on serum cholesterol.
Intravascular catheters have become essential devices for the management of critically and chronically ill patients. However, their use is often associated with serious infectious complications, mostly cathete...
The use of glucocorticoids (corticotherapy) in severe sepsis is one of the main controversial issues in critical care medicine. These agents were commonly used to treat sepsis until the end of the 1980s, when ...
Despite well developed emergency medical services with rapid response advanced life support capabilities, survival rates following out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation (VF) have remained bleak in many venu...
The autopsy continues to have important implications for patient management in critical illness. It is not obsolete. Autopsy data help us to track shifts in disease prevalence over time and to heighten surveil...
There has been increased interest in the use of capnometry in recent years. During cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide (PetCO2) correlates with cardiac output and...
More frequently than adults, pediatric victims of severe traumatic brain injury experience diffuse severe cerebral edema without mass lesions. These patients require methods to reduce intracranial pressure qui...
Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in childhood is associated with a high mortality and morbidity. Decompressive craniectomy has regained therapeutic interest during past years; however, treatment guidelines ...
The autopsy has long been regarded as an important tool for confirming the clinical cause of death, education and quality assurance. Concerns surrounding informed consent and the retention of organs have heigh...
Mechanical ventilation can cause and perpetuate lung injury if alveolar overdistension, cyclic collapse, and reopening of alveolar units occur. The use of low tidal volume and limited airway pressure has impro...
Many patients are believed to be at risk of dysrhythmias and are felt to require cardiac monitoring. These patients may not be deemed ill enough to occupy a high dependency or critical care bed and are monitor...
Concerns about the work of breathing imposed by the endotracheal tube have led clinicians to routinely use pressure support to overcome this resistive component. More recently, ventilator manufacturers have in...
In intensive care unit patients we assessed, using bispectral index (BIS) monitoring, whether the addition of magnesium sulphate infusion could decrease the sufentanil infusion required to maintain sedation.
We conducted the present study to assess the validity of mortality prediction systems in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with severe sepsis and septic shock. We included Acute Physiology and...
There is very little information on what is considered an adequate energy intake for mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients. The purpose of the present study was to determine this energy requirement ...
The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between serious arrhythmias in patients with psychotropic drug overdose and electrocardiography (ECG) findings that have been suggested previously t...
We describe a case of systemic inflammatory response syndrome associated with air embolism following the removal of a central line catheter, coupled with a deep inspiratory maneuver. The presence of a patent f...
An endotracheal tube (ETT) imposes work of breathing on mechanically ventilated patients. Using a bellows-in-a-box model lung, we compared the tube compensation (TC) performances of the Nellcor Puritan-Bennett...
To compare the diagnostic capability of recently available hand-held echocardiography (HHE) and of conventional transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) used as a gold standard in critically ill patients under mec...
The microcirculation is a complex and integrated system that supplies and distributes oxygen throughout the tissues. The red blood cell (RBC) facilitates convective oxygen transport via co-operative binding wi...
The increasing prevalence of multiresistant Gram-negative strains in intensive care units (ICUs) has recently rekindled interest in colistin, a bactericidal antibiotic that was used in the 1960s for treatment ...
Hypertension is an extremely common clinical problem, affecting approximately 50 million people in the USA and approximately 1 billion individuals worldwide. Approximately 1% of these patients will develop acu...
Recently, incidence ranges for acute respiratory failure (ARF), acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in adults were reported and found to be 77.6–88.6, 17.9–34.0, and 12.6–28....
The incidence and outcome of acute respiratory failure (ARF) depend on dysfunction in other organs. As a result, reported mortality in patients with ARF is derived from a mixed group of patients with different...
Despite a usually normal or high cardiac output, severe sepsis is associated with inadequate tissue oxygenation, leading to organ failure and death. Some authors have suggested that raising cardiac output and ...
Abnormal oxygen utilisation is one of the features of septic shock. Some studies have observed that patients that survive septic shock tend to have higher cardiac output and oxygen delivery compared to those t...
With favourable and extensive experience in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) and the recent positive experience in the adult ICU, high-frequency ventilation has become a valuable alternative to conventio...
Administration of drotrecogin alfa (activated) has been demonstrated to reduce mortality in patients with severe sepsis who are at high risk for death or who have multiple organ dysfunction. This benefit was a...
Vasopressin is emerging as a rational therapy for vasodilatory shock states. Unlike other vasoconstrictor agents, vasopressin also has vasodilatory properties. The goal of the present review is to explore the ...
Vasopressin is emerging as a rational therapy for vasodilatory shock states. In part 1 of the review we discussed the structure and function of the various vasopressin receptors. In part 2 we discuss vascular ...
This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 7 Supplement 3
This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 7 Supplement 3
This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 7 Supplement 3
Critical Care