ICU Volume 8 - Issue 4 - Winter 2008/2009

Author Jean-Louis Vincent Editor-in-Chief ICU Management Head Department of Intensive Care Erasme Hospital Free University of Brussels,Brussels, Belgium [email protected] In the current financial climate, a more discerning eye has been placed on the costs of public services and the business practices attached to their allocation. As healthcare accounts for a considerable share of many...

www.dh.gov.uk A database launched recently will help identify the incidence and causes of sudden cardiac death and save the lives of people who may currently be at risk from the inherited heart condition that can strike without warning. Designed by pathologists and cardiologists, and funded by the Department of Health, the database will be a key tool in understanding the incidence and causes of in...

www.emory.edu The use of ultrasound waves for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) may help dissolve blood clots in less time than using clot-busting drugs alone, according to researchers at Emory University. "These clots are a main cause of both heart attacks and stroke and the more quickly you can eliminate them the better," says Karthikeshwar Kasirajan, MD, assistant professor of surgery in the Emory Univ...

Author Katja E. Wartenberg, MD, PhD Division of Neurocritical Care and Cerebrovascular Diseases, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, Dresden, Germany [email protected] Stroke care in the intensive care unit is focussed on stabilisation of vital and metabolic parameters. Timely recanalisation by means of intravenous, intraarterial th...

Authors Heather Hand RN, CCRN, CNRN Clinical Staff Nurse Tampa, FL USA [email protected] Marya Searcy RN, BSN, CCRN, CNRN Clinical Staff Nurse Tampa, FL USA The authors work in a 32-bed neurosciences ICU, a state-of-the-art facility located at a level 1 trauma centre on the west coast of Florida. As neuroscience nurses we encounter a multitude of challenges in caring of th...

Author Col. Rocco A. Armonda, MD Director Cerebrovascular Surgery & Interventional Neuroradiology, Neurocritical Care National Capital Neurosurgery Consortium Bethesda, Maryland, USA [email protected] [email protected] Introduction The combination of enhanced care provided by stroke units combined with advanced temperature technology allows for a more precise control o...

Contact ECRI Institute Europe Weltech Centre, Ridgeway Garden City, Herts AL7 2AA, United Kingdom Tel +44 (0) 1707 871511 Fax +44 (0) 1707 393138 [email protected] www.ecri.org.uk ECRI Institute is a totally independent nonprofit research agency designated as a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Such organisations are re appointed to contribute to WHO’s public...

Author Robert D. Barraco, MD, MPH Section Chief Geriatric Trauma,Lehigh Valley Hospital Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA [email protected] In this, our second in a series of articles concerning the impact of the aging population in our ICUs, we address the care of the injured elderly. The elderly pose unique problems for trauma care providers. Elder trauma patients have significantly...

Authors Jérôme Pugin, MD Professor, Head Physician Intensive Care Department,University Hospitals of Geneva Switzerland [email protected] Vandack Nobre, MD Research Fellow Intensive Care Department, University Hospitals of Geneva Switzerland There is little controversy as to whether patients with severe sepsis and septic shock should receive a prompt, broad-spe...

Authors Charlie Granger FRCA Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Royal Lancaster Infirmary Lancaster, UK [email protected] The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can be a highly stressful environment - not just for our patients and their relatives but also for us, the staff who care for them. This stress comes at a price – even if we have chosen to work in such a highly charged environ...

Authors Clémence Dallaire, PhD Nurse, Professor at the Faculty of Nursing Sciences Université Laval Quebec, Canada [email protected] Paul-André Lapointe, PhD Director of the Department of Industrial Relations Faculty of Social Sciences Université Laval Quebec, Canada This article was inspired by a study carried out in the critical care units of a hospital in Q...

Authors Maurizia Capuzzo, MD Department of Surgical, Anaesthetic and Radiological Sciences, Section of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy Italian Representative in the Council of European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Chair of the Section on Health Services Research and Outcome of European Society of Intensive Care Medicine [email protected] Davide R...

Authors Guido Bertolini, MD Laboratorio di Epidemiologia Clinica Istituto di Ricerche "Mario Negri" Ranica (Bergamo), Italy [email protected] Martin Langer Università degli Studi di Milano Fondazione IRCCS-Istituto Nazionale Tumori Milano, Italy Daniele Poole Servizio Anestesia e Rianimazione Ospedale Civile San Martino Belluno, Italy Early in 1991 an increas...

Author Jean-Louis Vincent Dept of Intensive Care Erasme Hospital Université Libre de Bruxelles Brussels, Belgium [email protected] Intensive care medicine is one area of medical practice where the conduct of clinical trials is often difficult, largely because of the very heterogeneous nature of our patient population. As a result, a large part of our standard-of-care practice has never...

Author Jeannie Wurz Medical Writer/Editor Bern University Hospital and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland [email protected] At the 21st Annual Congress of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, held September 21 to 24 in Lisbon, Portugal, six speakers gave presentations addressing the number and type of personnel needed in an intensive care unit (ICU) and how the organisat...