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A single-center, retrospective, observational study found that stress ulcer prophylaxis is used in a majority of ICU patients, despite absence of risk factors for stress ulcers.
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> In this study of initial serum sodium values in more than 150,000 adults admitted to ICUs, both hyponatremia (Na < 130 mmol/L) and hypernatremia (Na > 150 mmol/L) were associated with substantially increased ICU and hospital mortality.
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Most respondents in this survey of medical students, residents, and staff physicians reported coming to work when they had a respiratory tract infection, with staff physicians most likely to do so.
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In total, 6,771 patients underwent screening for Staphylococcus aureus nasal colonization using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Of those, 1,251 patients were positive, 917 were enrolled in the trial, and 808 subsequently underwent a surgical procedure. The enrolled patients were treated with nasal mupirocin ointment plus body chlorhexidine baths (or placebo). Rates of S. aureus infection were 3.4% in the mupirocin-chlorhexidine group vs. 7.7% in the placebo group.
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When ICU practitioners worked under senior clinicians who modeled good hand-hygiene practices, their own behavior with respect to hand hygiene improved.
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Fixed dose of IVIg may not be effective in all patients with GBS.
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Recurrent peptic ulcer bleeding was increased in patients with known cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease when daily low-dose aspirin was continued along with proton-pump inhibitors, but overall mortality was significantly less during the 8-week follow-up.
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Intensive lipid lowering with statin therapy (atorvastatin 80 mg) in patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) resulted in improved outcomes compared to treatment with moderate lipid lowering (pravastatin 40 mg) in the PROVE-IT TIMI-22 study (Cannon et al. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:1495-1504), which included patients treated conservatively, as well as those treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
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This article originally appeared in the April 2014 issue of Clinical Cardiology Alert.
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In a patient presenting with leg symptoms, however non-specific, it is appropriate that a physician consider the diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis (DVT), as failure to make this diagnosis can have life-threatening consequences (e.g., pulmonary embolism).
