Search Tag: ICU
2019 23 Nov
The environment in an intensive care unit can often be intimidating for families and visitors. In addition, the machines, beeps, and all the alarms make the ICU appear foreboding. The ICU staff also have to follow rigid guidelines about patient visiting hours, allowing some visitors entry while denying others. All in all, many families and loved ones...Read more
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
2019 07 Nov
The population continues to age, and life expectancy continues to increase. While most elderly patients can be managed in the general ward, a certain percentage will need ICU admission. The number of elderly people admitted to the critical care unit has been increasing consistently. However, age alone is not a key factor for admission to the ICU....Read more
2019 21 Oct
Patients in the ICU who undergo mechanical ventilation often receive a high fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO 2 ) and have a high arterial oxygen tension. It is believed that conservative oxygen therapy could reduce oxygen exposure and diminish lung and systemic oxidative injury, thus increasing the number of ventilator-free days. A study was...Read more
2020 06 Dec
NOW A VIRTUAL EVENT DUE TO COVID-19 HEALTH CONCERNS NEW DATES 6-9 DECEMBER, 2020 Find ESICM on Social Media Read more
2019 12 Oct
In intensive care units, death often occurs after a decision to limit life-sustaining interventions. But there are significant differences in these practices within and between different countries and regions. Over the past decade or so, there have been significant changes in European laws, recommendations, guidelines, and attitudes regarding...Read more
2019 26 Sep
The critically ill patient is often unable to feed by mouth. This condition, in some patients, can range from days to months. It is imperative that these patients receive macronutrients either through enteral or parenteral nutrition. If they don't, there is a risk of an energy deficit that could lead to loss of lean body mass and subsequently, other...Read more
2019 26 Sep
Poor ICU nutrition delivery remains a challenge worldwide. Objective malnutrition diagnosis and personalisation of nutrition delivery may be one way of addressing this problem. Modern, and increasingly expensive ICU care now allows prolonged survival from illness and injury by providing life-sustaining support for extended periods of time,...Read more
2019 26 Sep
Speech and language therapists play an integral role in identifying dysphagia risk factors, facilitating oral intake, and improving clinical outcomes. Speech and Language Therapists (SLT) are recognised members of the multi-disciplinary team working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with a focus on the rehabilitation of communication and swallowing...Read more
2019 26 Sep
OCTOBER 10-12 8th Annual Johns Hopkins Critical Care Rehabilitation Conference Baltimore, USA 12-16 EUSEM 2019: 13th European Emergency Medicine Congress Prague, Czech Republic 14-18 World Congress of Intensive Care 2019 Melbourne, Australia 15-16 ESA Focus Meeting on Perioperative Medicine 2019: Mother and child Rome, Italy...Read more
2019 26 Sep
This symposium explores the different aspects of nutrition in the ICU and how nutritional requirements of the critically ill patient are met effectively. There is an overview of nutritional monitoring practices and how we could improve them for better nutritional delivery. There is also an overview of the DIVINE study which investigates the use of different...Read more
2019 26 Sep
The following is an overview of the DIVINE trial (Dietary Management of Glucose Variabilty in the ICU) as well as a quick summary of the role of glucose control and outcomes in critically ill patients. The DIVINE study was funded by Nestlé. Clinical studies show that goal nutrition may not result in the best outcomes. Available data suggest that...Read more
2019 26 Sep
Monitoring nutrition in the ICU is significantly different from monitoring other activities. For example, if we look at haemodynamics, it is pretty easy. We can monitor blood pressure, cardiac output etc. We can deliver a drug and look at its effect to see if it works or not, and, if it doesn’t, we can simply change the drug. These are simple activities...Read more
2019 20 Sep
Intensive care units (ICUs) have a considerable impact on the lives of the patients that are admitted there to their families and the society as a whole. The delivery of intensive care to these patients is considerably expensive and resource-intensive. With an ageing population and the rise in the volume and acuity of patients requiring critical care,...Read more
2019 13 Sep
In response to the many challenges faced by ICU survivors today, there has been an increasing need to relieve this burden. Despite that many clinical trials have been implemented to find new strategies, postintensive care syndrome is still a common possibility for both patients and families. A recent study has identified key enablers and barriers...Read more
2021 05 May
NOW A VIRTUAL EVENT POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 HEALTH CONCERNS TO MAY TO MAY 5 -7, 2021 Find EuroELSO on Social Media Read more
2019 26 Aug
Did you know that IV filtration in an intensive care unit (ICU) could help to reduce risks and generate economic benefits? Introduction Intravenous administration of fluids and drugs is an important part of patient care for the critically ill. However, the contamination of infusion solutions by particles is a largely unknown and underestimated...Read more
2019 26 Aug
Masimo announced today that in a randomized controlled study involving 150 ICU patients recently published as a letter in Intensive Care Medicine, researchers investigated whether monitoring with Masimo ORi™ (Oxygen Reserve Index) could reduce the time critically ill patients spend with moderate hyperoxia, compared to monitoring with oxygen saturation...Read more
2019 22 Aug
Delays in transferring patients from the Emergency Department (ED) to the ICU could delay treatment, leaving the patient at risk. A recent study explored the impact of this and found that increased ED to ICU wait times were associated with increased hospital mortality. Data was used from the Dutch quality registry National Intensive Care Evaluation,...Read more
2019 09 Aug
There is currently doubt over the terms stable and unstable regarding cardiovascular dynamics in critically ill patients. Labelling a patient as haemodynamically stable or unstable can have different connotations depending on the practising physician. The term stable is originally defined as the condition of the patient being unchanged for a substantial...Read more
2019 08 Aug
Consequences of psychological distress in the ICU needs to be addressed, due to the frequent occurrence of anxiety, delirium, acute PTSD and depression in both patients and family members. By addressing these key issues healthcare costs and usage could be reduced. Previously, it was thought that stress could be reduced through a paternalistic...Read more
2019 03 Aug
Patients admitted to the ICU have a high mortality rate. Even those who survive the stay tend to suffer from long-term morbidity and reduced quality of life. Critically ill patients frequently present with low blood pressure, oliguria, and skin mottling. These are the signs that usually guide treatment. Most critical care guidelines on the management...Read more
2019 02 Aug
A study of the Massey Family Foundation Emergency Critical Care Center – EC3 found that the implementation of emergency department ICUs led to improved survival rates and better patient care. Opened in February 2015, EC3 is a highly advanced critical care centre, next to the emergency department at Michigan Medical. The unit is equipped with five...Read more
2019 24 Jul
Congratulations to our US team who just signed a major capital equipment contract with the US Department of Defence worth up to $150,000,000! Using customers are Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and federal civilian agencies. Following a 5-year ECAT contract that ended last year and mainly consisted of the HAMILTON-T1 military transport ventilators,...Read more
2019 23 Jul
Results of a randomised clinical trial in France indicate that the use of ICU diaries was not helpful in preventing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD) after ICU hospitalisation. In this multicentre study, investigators compared the use of patients' ICU diaries – filled out by clinicians and family members during the ICU stay – with usual...Read more
2019 19 Jul
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become an established tool for the rapid assessment and diagnosis of patients across a variety of medical disciplines, not least in the high-octane environment of intensive care medicine. Dr. Timm Steuber, senior consultant and head of the ICU at Evangelisches Krankenhaus Unna, Germany, discusses his day-to-day...Read more
2019 03 Jul
According to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, shortening the length of rotations in the ICU from the traditional 14-day schedule to only seven consecutive days can help mitigate burnout among critical care physicians. Penn Medicine implemented a pilot initiative across four critical care...Read more
2019 19 Jun
Many patients in the ICU receive multiple IV infusions. This can lead to significant confusion because infusions look quite similar, and a patient with multiple infusions tends to be surrounded by associated components such as bags, tubing, pumps, etc. There is often a lack of information along the infusion pathway, which can lead to confusion....Read more
2019 19 Jun
Patients in the ICU tend to achieve clinical improvement within 3 to 7 days of stay. However, there is a subset of patients who progress to chronic critical illness. This is usually characterised by low-grade persistent inflammation and protein catabolism, also referred to as Persistent Inflammatory Catabolism Syndrome (PICS). PICS patients...Read more
2019 03 Jun
At this year’s Euroanaesthesia 2019 in Vienna, Austria, Prof. Caterina Aurilio (Naples, Italy), talked about acute pain management in the ICU. She started her presentation with the definition of pain as outlined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). Pain is an "unnecessary sensory and emotional experience associated with actual...Read more