Search Tag: COVID-19

2024 19 Apr

Decision-making in the ICU is a multifaceted process that involves clinical assessment, collaboration among multidisciplinary teams, ethical considerations, evidence-based practice, communication, and continuous adaptation to evolving clinical scenarios.  Read more

2024 19 Mar

Findings from the HOT-COVID Randomised Clinical Trial, just published in JAMA, were presented at #ISICEM24.    COVID-19 pneumonia often leads to hypoxaemic respiratory failure, necessitating high levels of supplemental oxygen and intensive care. Previous recommendations suggested maintaining peripheral oxygen saturation (Spo2) between 90% and...Read more

2024 13 Feb

  Cell-based therapies, particularly mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), hold significant promise for treating acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). MSCs exhibit therapeutic effects such as reducing inflammation, improving lung function, and promoting tissue repair. These cells can be sourced from different tissues, affecting their ease of harvest...Read more

2023 11 Jul

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impact on healthcare, with millions of cases and deaths reported globally. Healthcare workers have been particularly affected, experiencing increased mental health issues, burnout, and moral distress. The pandemic has led to higher levels of anxiety, depression, stress reactions, sleep disturbances, and posttraumatic...Read more

2023 06 Jun

The 30-day outcome findings in patients undergoing postponed elective surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic (TRACE II) were presented at a poster session at Euroanaesthesia 2023.   The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the ability to perform elective surgeries worldwide. To understand the consequences of delayed surgery, the TRACE II study...Read more

2023 22 Mar

In an interesting session at #ISICEM23, Michelle Chew, Professor of Anesthesiology, Intensive care, and Acute Medicine Care at Linköping University Hospital, Sweden, talked about stress, anxiety, and burnout.   Prof Chew discussed a study conducted by her group on perceived and physiological stress, anxiety, and burnout among ICU staff in an area...Read more

2023 21 Mar

At the #ISICEM23 this week in Brussels, the benefits and harms of therapeutic-dose heparin varied by hospitalised COVID-19 patient characteristics were discussed, and the importance of considering the heterogeneity of treatment effect (HTE) in the design and analysis of randomised clinical trials was highlighted.   To date, RCTs that have tested...Read more

2023 15 Feb

There is increasing evidence supporting the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients that do not respond to maximal medical therapy. ARDS can occur in some COVID-19 patients who are hospitalised, and ECMO can be utilised as a treatment option in some cases. Using ECMO can help...Read more

2022 24 Oct

At the Presidents' Ground Breaking Research Release session at ESICM LIVES 2022 in Paris, Jean-Pierre Frat (Poitiers, France) presented the findings from the Standard Oxygen Versus High Flow Cannula Oxygen Therapy in Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure (SOHO-COVID) trial.  COVID-19 has resulted in over six million deaths worldwide...Read more

2022 14 Oct

An overview of antimicrobial resistance and its impact on clinical outcomes in the ICU.  Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been defined as a major threat to healthcare and to humanity by the World Health Organization (WHO 2015). The level of evidence for the association between AMR and hospital deaths, hospital length of stay and healthcare-associated...Read more

2022 20 Sep

Acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure (AHRF) is one of the main manifestations of severe COVID-19. The RECOVERY trial showed that dexamethasone 6 mg/d for ten days reduced 28-day mortality in patients with the most severe COVID-19. Another study described the benefit of high-dose dexamethasone in ARDS. However, Munch et al. found no difference between...Read more

2022 13 Sep

Findings from two large clinical trials show that increasing vitamin D levels in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic was not associated with protection against coronavirus or other respiratory tract infections.  Vitamin D has long been recognised to support innate immune responses to respiratory viruses and bacteria. Some studies show that vitamin...Read more

2022 09 Aug

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals in the U.S. exceeded their mechanical ventilation capability. As COVID-19 spread to communities with limited immunity, challenges associated with providing surge mechanical ventilation were reported. Hospitals, healthcare systems, and jurisdictional authorities purchased more ventilators. But the fear that the...Read more

2022 19 Jul

Approximately 10-15% of patients with COVID-19 require ICU treatment. Respiratory failure and multi-organ dysfunction are the most common indications for ICU admission. However, nearly 1/3 of COVID-19 patients also present with neurologic manifestations. Neurologic manifestations are believed to predict mortality and functional outcome. While there...Read more

2022 12 Jul

COVID-19 has resulted in an estimated 270,000 hospitalisations in ICUs in Europe between May 2020 and March 2022. Nearly 80% of these patients have required tracheal intubation and invasive mechanical ventilation. While there is still an ongoing debate whether acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) physiopathology is the same in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19...Read more

2022 05 Jul

There have been conflicting results concerning lung recruitability of COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and the use of techniques derived from changes in respiratory mechanics and/or gas exchange in response to positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) increase. Various factors may explain the heterogeneity of reports regarding recruitability...Read more

2022 28 Jun

Findings from the first modelling study to quantify the impact of COVID-19 vaccines show that nearly 19.9 million out of a potential 31.4 million deaths were prevented in the first year (December 2020-December 2021) after the introduction of the vaccine. The findings are based on data from 185 countries using COVID-19 death records and total excess...Read more

2022 20 Jun

Sedation management is a critical component when managing mechanically ventilated patients. It is important to use a protocol-driven approach, which favours paired spontaneous awakening (SAT) and breathing (SBT) trials, along with light levels of sedation. The initial period of respiratory failure in the emergency department and the first 48 hours...Read more

2022 07 Jun

New research presented at Euroanaesthesia 2022 finds that long-term exposure to air pollution is linked to a greater risk of severe COVID-19. Findings from the study show that people living in counties with higher levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) were more likely to need ICU care and mechanical ventilation if they had COVID-19. Long-term exposure...Read more

2022 31 May

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is one of the most significant challenges faced by critical care workers worldwide. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented number of patients with COVID-19 associated pneumonia were admitted to the ICU. As a result, most healthcare facilities faced capacity issues and had to designate clinical areas to accommodate...Read more

2022 10 May

More than 500 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide. Patients infected with COVID-19 are at a higher risk of persisting health impairments six months after hospital discharge associated with reduced physical function and health and quality of life. It is thus important to understand the long-term trajectory of recovery from COVID-19....Read more

2022 27 Apr

COVID-19 has resulted in the death of over 4 million people worldwide. In severe cases of COVID-19, acute respiratory infection leads to severe pneumonia, which worries to progress hypoxaemia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).  Prolonged sessions in the prone position is an effective intervention to decrease mortality in these patients....Read more

2022 19 Apr

COVID-19 continues to create a strain on healthcare systems around the world. Approximately 10-30% of COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital need ICUs, and 15-20% of these patients require ventilatory support. The available data shows an increased risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and ventilator-associated lower respiratory tract infections...Read more

2022 12 Apr

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the number of hospital admissions, including many patients presenting acute respiratory failure. Approximately 15% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients require ICU admission.  It is well established that the physical and psychological impact of an ICU stay on patients can be quite significant and prolonged....Read more

2022 22 Mar

Thrombotic events are common in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Platelet activation has been implicated in the COVID-19 inflammatory response. However, the efficacy of antiplatelet therapy in critically ill patients with COVID-19 is still uncertain.  The Randomized, Embedded, Multifactorial Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia...Read more

2022 22 Mar

Prone positioning can improve oxygenation and mortality for intubated patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Prone positioning of non-intubated patients called awake prone positioning has been used for non-intubated patients with COVID-19 related acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure. It has been proven to improve...Read more

2022 21 Mar

Obesity is highly prevalent in patients who are hospitalised with COVID-19. It is a widely recognised risk factor for severe COVID-19 infection with a greater risk for mortality compared with non-obese patients. With each 1 kg/m 2 increase in body mass index, the risk for severe infection increases by 9% and mortality by 6%.  While there are...Read more

2022 08 Mar

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. Since then, nearly 100 million patients have been infected worldwide, and millions of deaths have been reported.  While healthcare systems overall have been under immense pressure around the world, critical care teams, in particular, have shouldered significant...Read more

2022 08 Mar

Many patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory failure fulfil the criteria of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and require invasive mechanical ventilation. Therefore, it is important to understand the features of gas exchange abnormalities, respiratory mechanics and lung recruitability in these patients to provide an appropriate...Read more

2022 01 Mar

As countries around the world become more accustomed to living with COVID-19, an important topic of discussion has been the medium-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on respiratory function and health-related quality of life.  Most published studies on COVID-19 include patients with varying degrees of severity and evaluate patients up to six...Read more