Search Tag: Pain
2024 09 Apr
Delirium is a common psychiatric syndrome in critically ill patients, associated with high mortality rates and long-term cognitive decline. Recent trials on medication-based treatments have not shown significant benefits, leading to a shift towards nonpharmacologic approaches. The Society of Critical Care Medicine recommends comprehensive...Read more
2022 09 Nov
Approximately 58% of patients in the ICU experience pain. Pain can lead to additional consequences, including delirium, decreased healing and adverse physiological and psychological outcomes. Hence, effective pain management is an integral component of a critical care nurse's role. Commonly used pain assessment tools depend on a patient's ability...Read more
2021 04 Nov
In our world live 7.8 billion people. Pharma only focuses on cancer treatments for 1.6 billion people. How can the other 6.2 billion people hold no interest for pharma? Even from a commercial perspective, it is unwise to neglect these people. And don’t say that there is no profit possible in low- and middle-income countries. Pharma can turn a profit...Read more
2021 18 Oct
Postoperative patients often require use of acute services like acute hospital care, brief acute hospital care, and emergency department visits. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has left a backlog of people waiting for non-elective surgeries. One way that hospitals cope with this demand and ensure hospital capacity is by reducing the demand for...Read more
2021 11 May
The verdict is in. Findings from the ISARIC CCP-UK (International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium Clinical Characterisation Protocol United Kingdom) study, the largest of its kind, show that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, do not result in higher rates of death or disease severity in patients...Read more
2021 22 Feb
Clinical Practice Guidelines The Choosing Wisely top five guidelines published a few years ago by the Chest Association of Physicians, the American Thoracic Society, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses state that mechanically ventilated patients should not be deeply sedated without a specific...Read more
2019 26 Jun
Increasing focus on ICU utilisation and survivorship has also resulted in a greater focus on the long-term consequences of critical illness. Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) is characterised by physical, cognitive, and emotional manifestations and can have a long-lasting impact on survivors of ICU as well as their families and caregivers. ...Read more
2017 01 Feb
Clinical massage and guided imagery may improve patients’ comfort at a very low cost, according to a study published in Critical Care Nurse (CCN) , the journal of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Researchers with Beaumont Health System in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA, found that patients in a progressive (intermediate) care unit reported...Read more
2016 30 Nov
This review article focuses on research-based advances in pain assessment practices in intensive care units (ICUs), and stresses clinician consideration of multimodal analgesic techniques for pain management in ICUs. Over the past 30 years, attention devoted to pain experienced by intensive care unit (ICU) patients has evolved from recognising...Read more
2015 22 Dec
Doctors can play a pivotal role in addressing suffering if they can expand how they work with patients, according to an opinion piece published in JAMA by University of Rochester Professor Ronald M. Epstein, MD, and oncologist Anthony L. Back, University of Washington. “Patients suffer. Yet clinical care has moved away from addressing suffering”,...Read more
2015 08 Sep
Vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty appear to be equally effective in substantially reducing pain and disability in osteoporosis patients with vertebral fractures, according to new findings from Baylor’s interventional radiology department. Currently, nearly three in four osteoporosis patients with vertebral fractures undergo kyphoplasty, a minimally-invasive...Read more
2015 23 Jun
Two randomised controlled trials of patient-administered patient relief in the emergency department have found that they are effective in reducing pain. Currently, patients arriving in emergency departments may be administered morphine intravenously by a nurse. Whilst this is safe and works, it takes up nursing time. Two randomised controlled trials...Read more
2015 16 Jun
A simple yes/no question could be an effective tool to help patients decide for themselves whether their pain is adequately controlled, according to researchers conducting a study to evaluate the efficacy of a new evidence-based protocol to treat acute, severe pain in emergency department patients. Simply asking the question, "Do you want more pain...Read more
2015 14 Apr
Emergency department (ED) patients have misperceptions about opioid dependence and want more information about their pain management options, according to researchers from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Patients seen in the ED for acute pain, the researchers note, expressed a desire for better communication from physicians...Read more
2014 01 Nov
A new patient support system developed by Joerns Healthcare (Pershore, UK) simulates the effects of a body floating in fluid, redistributing pressure and weight to prevent damage to skin and other tissues. The result is that the patient is in a simulated fluid environment and suspended in a nearly neutral buoyant state, as if floating on the mattress,...Read more
2013 22 Apr
Monitoring pain and providing analgesics to patients in intensive care units (ICUs) during non-surgical procedures, such as turning and washing, can not only reduce the amount of pain but also reduce the number of serious adverse events including cardiac arrest, according to research published online in BioMed Central’s open access journal Critical...Read more