ICU Volume 14 - Issue 3 - Autumn 2014

Communication skills are perhaps even more important in intensive care medicine than in other specialties. Critical illness can be frightening for both patients and families, and it is a given that errors in communication can impede care and even harm the patient. But when time and resources are stretched, what is the best way to communicate? In the first article in our cover story, Taylor Thompson and Lill...

Sniffing Out C. difficile Rapid detection of C. difficile could be on its way with the development by UK scientists of an ‘electronic nose.’ Using a mass spectrometer, the researchers have shown that it is possible to identify the unique ‘smell’ of C-diff, which would lead to rapid diagnosis. In addition, the scientists say it could be possible to identify different strains of the dise...

Good communication is essential for optimal patient and family outcomes and to align treatments with the patient’s goals and preferences. Unfortunately, substantial evidence suggests that ICU clinicians are not meeting family expectations for good or even adequate communication during an ICU stay. Two studies indicate that a third to nearly half of families fail to comprehend the diagnosis, prognosis or I...

Authors Paul Barach, MD, MPH Guest Professor University of Oslo, Norway Gautham K. Suresh, MD, MS Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Community & Family Medicine Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, New Hampshire, USA Introduction The process of transferring responsibility for care of a patient...

The impact of a positive fluid balance on morbidity and mortality has been well established. However, little is known about how to monitor fluid status and fluid overload. This article discusses the different parameters related to bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA) and their use to monitor fluid status and to guide fluid management in critically ill patients. Introduction Bio-electrical impedance...

Two Randomized Trials Presented at the Euroanaesthesia 2014 Congress Show Similar Fluid Administration and Risk Profile with PVI as with Invasive or Complicated Procedures Two Additional Studies Presented on Noninvasive SpHb in Postpartum Hemorrhage Detection and Oral Surgery Four new clinical studies evaluating Masimo noninvasive patient monitoring technologies were presented at the European Societ...

Authors V. Jaume Mestre, MD Transplant Coordinator, Certificate of European Transplant Coordination (ETCO-CETC) Consultant in Critical Care Medicine Critical Care Department, Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari Corporació Sanitaria i Universitaria Parc Taulí Sabadell
Barcelona, Spain [email protected] Néstor Bacelar, MD Transplant Coordinator, Registrar in Critical Care Medicine Cr...

Authors Yuda Sutherasan, MD Department of Surgical Sciences and Integrated Diagnostics University of Genoa, IRCCS San Martino –IST Genoa, Italy Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University Bangkok, Thailand Raquel Rodríguez-González, PhD Research Unit, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrín, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Critical Patient Translational Research Group Department of Anesthesiolo...

Adequate Dialysis in the ICU - A Multidimensional Aspect Authors Zaccaria Ricci , MD Staff, Department of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Paediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, IRCCS Rome, Italy [email protected] Gianluca Villa, MD Staff, Department of Health Science Section of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care University of Florence Flo...

Authors Lieutenant Colonel Michael C. Reade, MBBS, MPH DPhil FANZCA FCICM Intensivist & Australian Defence Force Professor of Military Medicine and Surgery Burns, Trauma and Critical Care Research Centre, University of Queensland and Joint Health Command, Australian Defence Force, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia [email protected] [email protected] Transfusion of blood components in trauma...

Authors Mary A. King, MD, MPH, FCCP Harborview Medical Center Medical Director, Pediatric Trauma Intensive Care Unit Seattle, Washington, USA [email protected] Niranjan Kissoon, MBBS, FRCP(C), FAAP, FCCM, FACPE University of British Columbia & BC Children’s Hospital Professor in Critical Care – Global Child Health Department of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine University o...

Interview Prof. Daniel De Backer President-Elect, European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Professor Daniel De Backer is President-Elect of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, and takes up his role as President in October 2014. He is Professor in the Intensive Care Department at Erasme University Hospital in Brussels, Belgium. What Motivated you to Stand for the ESICM Pres...

A New Tool to Quantify the Microcirculatory Effects of (fluid) Resuscitation Ever since the introduction of microcirculatory monitoring at the bedside, physicians and clinical investigators have had one wish: to instantly have an analysis of the microcirculation at the bedside.(1) The fourth generation of MicroVision Medical’s Automated Vascular Analysis (AVA) application makes this wish a rea...

Author Sebastián Ugarte, MD President of the Pan American and Iberian Federation of Critical Care Medicine (FEPIMCTI) Head of the Critical Care Service, Indisa Clinic Professor of Intensive Medicine University Andrés Bello Santiago, Chile Chile is located in the south-western tip of South America, has 17.4 million inhabitants, and its population is growing at an annual rate of 0.9%. Chile...

Authors Sebastián Ugarte, MD President of the Pan American and Iberian Federation of Critical Care Medicine (FEPIMCTI) Director of the Critical Care Service, Indisa Clinic Professor of Intensive Medicine University Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile Juan Espinoza, MD Director of the Surgical Critical Care Unit, Indisa Clinic. University Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile. ECMO (extracor...