Critical Care Alert – May 1, 2008
May 1, 2008
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Dislodged Tracheostomy Tube: Do ICU Staff Know What To Do?
Casserly and colleagues administered a case-based questionnaire to physician and nursing staffs at 2 large teaching hospitals in Ireland, to determine their knowledge and experience with respect to a common and potentially deadly event in mechanically ventilated patients with fresh tracheostomies: dislodgement of the tube from the airway during vigorous coughing. -
Should We Regionalize the Care of Mechanically Ventilated Patients?
Regionalized health care systems exist for trauma and neonatal care and efforts are underway to institute similar systems for high-risk surgeries, three fields in which there is a positive relationship between the volume of cases handled and patient outcomes. -
Physician Attitudes Toward Reporting Errors
This study reports findings from a survey of 1,082 US physicians (62% response rate) regarding their attitudes about reporting medical errors and suggestions for ways to prevent common errors. -
Survival from In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest is Worse at Night and on Weekends
This study sought to determine whether the occurrence of in-hospital cardiac arrest at night and on weekends was associated with worse outcomes as compared with arrests during day/evening shifts and on weekdays. -
Can We Improve Our Vasopressor Management in Patients with Septic Shock?
Despite the large role that vasopressors play in the management of septic shock, an unfortunately common problem associated with high mortality, few data exist to support using one vasopressor regimen over another. -
Effects of a Mandatory Daily Spontaneous Breathing Trial on Ventilator Weaning in a Surgical ICU
This study from the department of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis sought to determine the effect on extubation and reintubation rates of implementing a mandatory daily spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) in every qualifying ventilated patient and reporting its results to the physicians managing that patient. -
Pharmacology Watch: FDA Drug Approval to Change its Ways?
In This Issue: FDA drug approval to change? Urinary incontinence in women; how metabolism of certain drugs can be predicted by genetic analysis; bowel preps may compromise renal function especially in the elderly according to a new study; FDA Actions. -
Clinical Briefs in Primary Care supplement