This issue deals with two key topics in the ongoing discussion about how critical care should be organized: rapid response systems (also called medical emergency teams or rapid response teams) for identifying patients not in ICUs who are at risk for life-threatening deterioration, and around-the-clock intensivist staffing in the ICU.
The use of a rapid response system (RRS), or medical emergency team (MET), has become established as a patient safety measure to ensure early detection of patient compromise.
One of the hottest topics in critical care these days is whether all ICUs should be staffed around the clock, seven days a week (24/7), by physicians with special training and qualifications in critical care (intensivists).
In this issue: Aggressive approach to CVD reÿ
In a prospective study of the actual oral nutritional intake of patients with respiratory failure in the first week following extubation, average intake failed to exceed 50% of daily requirements on all seven days.
In this retrospective study of patients hospitalized because of severe chronic liver disease, venous thromboembolism was relatively common and "auto-anticoagulation" in the form of an elevated INR had no apparent protective effect.
The use of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in all acute myocardial infarction (MI) patients is controversial. Thus, these investigators from the Register of Information and Knowledge about Swedish Heart Intensive Care Admissions (RIKS-HIA) examined the association between ACE inhibitor therapy and mortality in unselected patients with acute MI.
