Critical Care
RSSArticles
-
Sleep-promoting Interventions for Critically Ill Patients
ABSTRACT & COMMENTARY: Efforts have been made over the past couple of years to test and implement interventions in the ICU to promote sleep.
-
Clinical Practice Guidelines for Platelet Transfusion
The American Association of Blood Banks has six recommendations of varying strengths based on the availability of quality evidence.
-
Benefits of NIV in COPD Supported in Routine Clinical Practice
In a large cohort study, COPD patients managed with noninvasive ventilation had lower inpatient mortality compared to those managed with invasive ventilation.
-
Multicenter QI Project Results in a 23% Reduction in Medical Errors
Implementation of a quality improvement project focused on handoffs reduced medical errors by 23% and preventable adverse events by 30%.
-
Risks of ICU Admission Include Unintentional Discontinuation of Medications
Admission to an ICU increased risk for unintentional medication discontinuation in four of five medication groups commonly used to manage a chronic illness. -
Risk of Perioperative MI in Patients with Stents Undergoing Surgery
Patients who have had percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with either bare metal stents (BMS) or drug-eluting stents (DES) require dual antiplatelet therapy until the stent struts are endothelialized. However, patients who have had prior PCI often need to undergo surgery. -
Daily Prompting on ICU Checklist Use Improves Patient Outcomes as Well as Processes of Care
In this study from a single medical ICU, prompting physicians to discuss all six items on a daily rounding checklist, as compared with the use of the same checklist without prompting, significantly improved several processes of care and appeared to decrease length of stay and mortality as well. -
ACE Inhibitors/ARBs for Aortic Stenosis?
In severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS), surgical AVR improves mortality, but there is no medical therapy proven to slow progression of the valvular stenosis. Because AS is accompanied by left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and fibrosis, and because the risk factors for AS are similar to those for coronary artery disease (CAD), it makes sense that blockade of the renin-angiotensin system may benefit patients with AS. -
Hospital Medicine Alert - Full December 2011 Issue in PDF
-
Saddle Pulmonary Embolism: Is It the Same as 'Massive' PE?
Saddle pulmonary embolism was found in 37 of 680 patients with documented pulmonary embolism (PE) in this community hospital study. The great majority of these patients did well on standard therapy without thrombolytics, emphasizing that the radiographic finding of saddle PE should not by itself be equated with the much more serious clinical entity of massive PE.