Search Tag: mortality
Association of Higher vs Lower PEEP on Mortality
2021 19 Jul
Mechanical ventilation is a life-saving strategy for critically ill patients. However, it can promote and/or exacerbate lung injury through several mechanisms, including alveolar overdistension and repetitive opening and closing of the alveoli and small airways. Positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) has been employed to prevent end-expiratory alveolar... Read more
Making Decisions During ICU Night Shifts: Challenges and Considerations
2020 11 Aug
We review the decision-making processes during night shifts focusing on the perspective of residents and fellows. We explore nighttime decisions about extubations, ICU discharge, withholding/withdrawing and night shift cross-coverage. T aking a night shift in the ICU can be challenging, particularly from a resident/fellow perspective.... Read more
Top ICU Stories of 2019
2019 28 Dec
As we move into 2020, here's a quick recap of our most clicked stories in ICU in 2019: Using Biomarkers for Mortality Prediction in Patients With Sepsis A new study evaluated the prognostic value of six biomarkers at onset of sepsis in adult patients with sepsis or septic shock. Risk Factors for Frailty and Death in the ICU... Read more
Running Lowers Risk of Death
2019 14 Nov
There has been extensive literature on the benefits of exercise, including running. Not only does running improve physical endurance, it has been shown to lower body weight, enable better control of blood pressure and blood glucose, improve mental health and lower the risk of adverse cardiac events. However, current literature on how much to run, at... Read more
Emergency Department to ICU Time Associated With Mortality
2019 07 Nov
Most emergency rooms have a triage system that enables the triage nurse to determine which patient is seriously ill to ensure that the patient is promptly admitted and treated. For disorders like heart attack and stroke, there are standard emergency room protocols in most hospitals that enable patients to receive care within 3-5 hours of initial... Read more
FrailSafe System: An Innovative Approach on Frailty
2019 02 Oct
Summary: Frail older people are often burdened with a range of complex medical conditions that leave them more susceptible to illness. The FrailSafe system aims to resolve this by offering a method that can predict, detect and manage frailty earlier on. Frailty is a clinical syndrome manifested with progressive deterioration in more than one... Read more
Survived a heart attack? But what about the depression?
2019 05 Jun
According to new findings published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, heart attack patients with prolonged depression or anxiety are at a higher risk of death. Dr. Erik Olsson of Uppsala University, Sweden explains that temporary mood swings are a natural part of life, and patients who have a heart attack often feel a little... Read more
Relationship between frailty and mortality in TAVI population
2018 27 Nov
Established surgical scores have limitations in delineating risk among candidates for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). A novel 8-element geriatric assessment (GA) frailty score, developed by a team of researchers from Norway, Switzerland and the U.S., may be a useful tool for heart teams in selecting patients who will benefit most... Read more
Is there a ‘weekend effect’ for ICU mortality?
2017 22 Nov
The risk of dying in the intensive care unit (ICU) is higher for patients admitted at the weekend compared to those admitted on a weekday, according to a retrospective study of registry data from Austria published in Critical Care (Zajic et al. 2017). However, the risk of dying in the ICU on a weekend was found to be lower than on a weekday, highlighting... Read more
Study: AKI alerts associated with lower mortality, LOS
2017 22 Nov
A clinical decision support system (CDSS) that monitors blood creatinine levels in hospitalised patients to alert physicians to potential acute kidney injury (AKI) was associated with a small but significant reduction in mortality and hospital length of stay (LOS), according to research from the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC published in the Journal... Read more