A few years ago, vitamin E was deemed to be an extremely important nutrient required to maintain health, prevent or delay several disorders, and prolong life. However, many clinical trials involving intervention with supplemental administration of vitamin E failed to establish or confirm these benefits. A similar prominence is being afforded at present to vitamin D because of relationships being documented between vitamin D deficiency and multiple outcomes, including several disorders and mortality.
Drowning is defined as asphyxia or suffocation from submersion/immersion in a liquid medium.
Although most critically ill patients require only short periods of respiratory support, a minority require prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV).
Supported by robust data from numerous clinical trials, low-tidal-volume ventilation is now standard-of-care in managing patients with acute lung injury (ALI) or the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Participants in this study were 100 patients/surrogates and their physicians in a 26-bed medical ICU located in an academic medical center.
