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Using a simple clinical screening tool, patients considered at high risk for death in this closed medical ICU received a basic palliative care consultation. Those with unmet needs received a full consultation with ongoing intervention from the palliative care team. This process shortened ICU length of stay without affecting mortality rates or discharge disposition.
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This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrates that oral decontamination with antiseptic preparations decreases the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia but has no effect on mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation or length of stay in the ICU.
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Many nursing home patients are admitted with prescriptions for proton pump inhibitors or H2-receptor antagonists without any obvious indication.
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This study of oral versus intravenous prednisolone in patients hospitalized with exacerbations of COPD showed no differences in any outcome variable between the two forms of administration.
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RCVS occurs in a variety of clinical settings, and should be considered and investigated in any person with sudden severe headache that is unexplained by other disorders.
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This retrospective analysis of data on patients with acute lung injury shows that transfusion of red blood cells in such patients is associated with increased in-hospital mortality, and that the risk is highest with transfusion of non-leukoreduced blood and transfusion following the onset of acute lung injury.
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Most of the attention on catheter-related bloodstream infections (CR-BSI) in the ICU focuses on central venous catheters (CVC), a bias that likely derives, in part, from the 2002 Centers for Disease Control guidelines which stipulate that arterial catheters (AC) have "low infection ratesrarely associated with bloodstream infections.
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A prospective observational study was conducted to assess diagnostic and therapeutic efficacies of a daily routine CXR and to evaluate the impact of discontinuing this practice. The setting was a 10-bed mixed medical-surgical ICU of a non-academic teaching hospital in The Netherlands.
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n this issue: Stop smoking drug Chantix rates stronger warning from FDA; Type 2 diabetes surgery on the way?; Vytorin study inconclusive; Influenza A virus found resistant to Tamiflu; FDA actions.