ICU Volume 8 - Issue 1 - Spring 2008

Author Jean-Louis Vincent Head Department of Intensive Care Erasmus Hospital, Free University of Brussels Brussels, Belgium To many, the mere idea of an intensive care unit encompasses a vision of a well-run, sterile and enclosed space. When ICUs were first established, this idea of isolation was central to its’ premise. But what we in ICU Management have learned, is that our patients’ ca...

World World Health Organization Reports Highest Rates Of Drug- Resistant Tuberculosis To Date www.who.int Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been recorded at the highest rates ever, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report that presents findings from the largest survey to date on the scale of drug resistance in tuberculosis. The report, Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistanc...

Author Ken Hillman MBBS, MD,FRCA, FANZCA, FJFICM Professor of Intensive Care, University of New South Wales Clinical Director, Clinical Care Service Sydney South West Area, Health Service-Western Zone Sydney, Australia [email protected] Intensive care medicine arguably began in Copenhagen in the early 1950s. Mortality from poliomyelitis was reduced from 80 t...

Authors Mary Ellen Salenieks RN Project Coordinator,Critical Care Response Team Project, Critical Care Secretariat Health System Accountability and Performance Division Ministry of Health and Long Term Care,Toronto, Ontario Canada Stuart F. Reynolds, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine Staff Intensivist, Medical-Surgical Critical Care Units University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital Toronto, Ontari...

Authors Maurizia Capuzzo MD Department of Surgical,Anaesthetic and Radiological Science Section of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy Barbara Vaccarini MD Department of Surgical,,Anaesthetic and Radiological Science Section of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy [email protected] Outreach should improve the outcome of ward pati...

Part 1: Epidemiology and Pathophisiology Authors Karen E Pickett MB, BCh Medical Writer/Editor Department of Intensive Care Erasmus Hospital Brussels, Belgium Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common complication in mechanically ventilated patients and is associated with a considerable increase in morbidity and costs. Despite many years of research and important advances in our underst...

Author Mariam Alansari ,MD,FRCSI Consultant Intensivist, Intensive Care Unite Salmaniya Medical Complex, Ministry of Health, Manama,Kingdom of Bahrain [email protected] Central venous catheters (CVCs) are widely used in critically ill patients. They permit haemodynamic monitoring and allow access for the administration of fluids, blood products, medications, and, sometimes, total parenteral nutriti...

Authors Dominique Vandijck, MSc, MA Department of Intensive Care Medicine Ghent University Hospital Faculty of Medicine and Health Science Ghent University Ghent,Belgium [email protected] Dominique D. Benoit, MD, PhD Intensivist Department of Intensive Care Ghent University Hospital,Ghent,Belgium Eric A. Hoste MD, PhD Intensivist Department of Intensive Care Ghent University Hospital, Ghent,B...

Author W. Dalton Dietrich III, Ph.D. Department of Neurological Surgery Scientific Director The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Miami, Florida, USA [email protected] Introduction Spinal cord injury is a devastating problem that affects approximately 11,000 individuals each year in the United States. According to NIH’s National Instit...

ECRI Institute is a totally independent nonprofit research agency designated as a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization (WHO). Such organizations are appointed to contribute to WHO’s public health mission by providing specialized knowledge, expertise, and support in the health field to the WHO and its member nations. ECRI Institute is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading inde...

Author Patrick Van de Voorde, MD Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine Ghent University Hospital Faculty of Medicine and Health Science Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium [email protected] Timely and adequate medical care significantly reduces morbidity and mortality in (paediatric) emergencies. However, a wide variability in care (and suboptimal care) has been described by several authors worldwi...

Author Christy Dempsey RN,BSN,MBA,CNOR Senior Vice-President,Clinical Operations PatientFlow Technology USA Former Vice-President of Surgical and Emergency Service St John's Hospital,Missouri,USA [email protected] With strategic focus on improving the quality and safety of patient care, it has become increasingly obvious to both physicians and hospital leadership that improving patient flow and...

National Health Policies and Plans The national health policy is based on the Federal Constitution of 1988, which sets out the principles and directives for the delivery of healthcare in the country through the Unified Health System (SUS). Under the constitution, the activities of the federal government are to be based on multi-year plans approved by the national congress for four-year periods. The essen...

News Safe Hospitals, A Global Strategy In the framework of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction meeting, held in Geneva, WHO and PAHO organised a workshop on disaster risk reduction in health facilities and the health sector to call attention to the serious effects that emergencies, disasters and other crises have on health and the impact they have on development. WHO and PAHO have joi...

Professor Antonio Artigas has been managing the Critical Care Centre at Sabadell Hospital in Barcelona, Spain since 1988. He spoke at length with Sherry Scharff at the 13th International Symposium on Infections in the Critically Ill Patient in Athens, Greece, a meeting he heads. In this discussion, he describes the successes he has experienced in his hospital, outlines the challenges the intensive care fie...

Author Jeannie Wurz, BA Medical Writer/Editor Department of Intensive Care Medicine Bern University Hospital and University of Bem, Switzerland (on behalf of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine) [email protected] More than 4900 intensive care practitioners converged on Berlin between October 6 and 10, 2007, for the 20th Annual Congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medici...

Author Jennifer M. Hunter Chairman Scientific Programme Committee, ESA Division of Clinical Science(Aneasthesia)Liverpool,UK [email protected] In 2008, the European Society of Anaesthesiologists (ESA) will hold its annual scientific meeting, Euroanaesthesia, for the first time in Denmark at the Bella Conference Centre, Copenhagen. We look forward to welcoming you to this beautiful city. Yet again, i...