Vaccination has dramatically reduced the number of cases of chickenpox, measles, polio, mumps, and pertussis treated in primary care settings. Antibiotic treatment of streptococcal pharyngitis has reduced the number of cases of rheumatic fever. As a result, there are generations of physicians who have never encountered patients with these diseases. These diseases are often relegated to the historical section of general medical textbooks. However, recent isolated outbreaks in adults as well as children have brought these diseases back into the forefront for primary care providers.
In this issue: New recommendations for HPV vaccine; guidelines for treatment of essential tremor; updates on smoking cessation drugs; and FDA actions.
This article reports findings of a task force set up by the Society of Critical Care Medicine in 2008 to study intensivist workforce issues in the face of the ongoing increase in ICU beds and numbers of critically ill patients.
Miller and colleagues conducted a survey of daily interruption of sedation (DIS) in U.S. hospitals and sought to determine whether organizational features were associated with DIS use. The survey was mailed to a stratified random sample of non-federal U.S. acute-care hospitals with more than 50 beds.
When I was a medicine resident 40 years ago just as the first ICUs were being introduced, treatment for life-threatening bacterial infections consisted of antibiotics, control or removal of the primary source, intravenous fluids, and vasopressors.
This paper presents the findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis of available randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) published through July 2011 and retrieved from a variety of electronic search databases worldwide.