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Pulmonary hypertension (ph) is common among patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). In fact, many ICU clinicians simply view PH the same way they view leukocytosis as an expected finding caused by the "bigger problems" of sepsis, respiratory failure, congestive heart failure, volume overload, and myocardial infarction.
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Despite concerns that recombinant human Activated Protein C (rhAPC) is associated with an increased risk of bleeding, the FDA failed to list several of the bleeding-related exclusion criteria used in the PROWESS trial as contraindications to use of this agent.
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Post-extubation laryngeal edema, although infrequent, can necessitate reintubation and lead to other complications.
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It is no small sign of hard-earned wisdom that the mother who has lost a loved one to a health care-associated infection (HAI) doesn't want to be cast in angry hues, decrying the failure of a health system that took her 27-year-old son Josh along with some 100,000 other patients felled by infection in 2006.
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With more than 25 years experience as a critical care nurse, Barbara Jordan, RN, MSN, CCRN, could read the bleak signs and symptoms of the patient before her like a map to a destination she had been before.
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How do you know if your needlestick prevention program is working? A decrease in injuries is a good barometer but sometimes that could reflect a lack of reporting rather than an improvement in safety.
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Accurate microbiologic diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is problematic. Infecting organisms reside in a biofilm, and standard culture techniques appear to have suboptimal sensitivity.
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In a move that may clear the way for federal legislation aimed at preventing outbreaks of bloodborne diseases in ambulatory care, a broad-based coalition of patient safety advocates and health care groups has launched a national education campaign on needle safety.
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The Joint Commission and other national infection prevention groups made a point to include catheter-related urinary tract infections (CA-UTIs) traditionally considered a relatively benign adverse event in a recently issued compendium targeting the major health care-associated infections (HAIs).