Search Tag: mortality

2023 03 Oct

Mechanical ventilation is crucial for supporting critically ill patients, and a timely extubation strategy is essential for improved patient outcomes. Despite standard weaning procedures, a significant percentage of patients (3-20%) require reintubation. Post-extubation respiratory failure can cause respiratory fatigue, requiring additional mechanical...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 27 Apr

The risk of late mortality in sepsis survivors can persist for years with high readmission rates and poor quality of life. However, due to an incomplete understanding of the relevant causal mechanisms of post-sepsis syndrome, there has been limited success in implementing preventive interventions.  The French and European Outcome Registry in Intensive...Read more

2022 12 Apr

Transfers from one ICU to another ICU are associated with an increased length of stay in the ICU and the hospital. Inter-hospital ICU transfers occur for three main reasons: clinical transfers, capacity transfers and repatriations.  A study was conducted to show that different ICU transfers differ in risk-adjusted mortality rate. The primary endpoint...Read more

2022 15 Feb

A major feature of infection is fever. However, less than half of critically ill patients with sepsis have a fever at the time of diagnosis. Afebrile patients with sepsis have nearly twice the mortality and are more likely to develop secondary infections than patients with fever. Fever is thus an adaptive response to the infection and is critical for...Read more

2021 19 Dec

New research presented at Euroanaesthesia 2021 shows that middle-aged men are nearly 50% more likely to die after surgery than middle-aged women.   Previous studies also report sex differences in the risk of complications after surgery, but the results have been mixed. One study showed that men were at higher risk of complications and death after...Read more

2021 09 Nov

Acute respiratory failure in septic patients is associated with higher in-hospital mortality. Early management and treatment with antibiotics, fluids, vasopressors, and source control, can reduce morbidity and mortality. Sepsis-related acute respiratory failure is also frequent and may require non-invasive or invasive ventilator support.   While...Read more

2021 02 Nov

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a potentially fatal condition characterised by acute hypoxaemia, and bilateral radiographic infiltrates and a mortality of 36 to 47%. Interventions like lung protective ventilation (LPV) and prone positioning have been shown to improve survival but remain underused. Other treatment methods such as neuromuscular...Read more

2021 29 Sep

A study was conducted to assess the outcome of elderly intensive care unit patients who were treated during the spring and autumn surges of COVID-19 in Europe. The COVIP study included patients aged 70 years and older who were admitted with COVID-19 from March to December 2020. A total of 2625 patients – 1327 from the first surge of the pandemic...Read more

2021 27 Jul

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction. It is the leading cause of death in the U.S. It is also one of the most expensive conditions to treat. However, the burden of sepsis-related mortality in the U.S. in recent years is not well-characterised. Previous studies utilise hospital databases and electronic health records to determine trends, but...Read more

2021 06 Jul

Sepsis is a leading cause of death worldwide and is also associated with a high burden of patient mortality.  This burden is expected to increase as populations age. Patients with sepsis typically require high-cost interventions in ICUs. Even with urgent treatment, the probability of death still remains high. However, ICUs that have more experience...Read more

2021 04 May

COVID-19 is associated with a high incidence of thrombotic complications. The burden of thrombin complications, in particular, pulmonary embolism, remains high in patients with COVID-19, especially those requiring admission to the ICU. Data suggest an incidence of thromboembolic events between 27 to 57% in COVID-19 patients despite standard thromboprophylaxis....Read more

2021 27 Apr

Timely delivery of antibiotics is a major cornerstone of sepsis therapy. Clinical evidence suggests that every one-hour delay in antibiotics after emergency department (ED) triage or the onset of organ dysfunction or shock could result in a 3-7% increase in the odds of a poor outcome. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines recommend antibiotic...Read more

2021 01 Feb

An in-depth analysis was conducted in Germany to evaluate whether mortailty in Germany in Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) therapy differed from previously reported literature.  Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is a critical component of intensive care therapy. There are various conditions that require the use of ECLS. The term ECLS encompasses...Read more

2020 26 Oct

Tocilizumab is a humanised monoclonal antibody that binds human interleukin 6 (IL-6) receptors. It is generally used in inflammatory arthritis, giant cell arteritis and cytokine release syndrome after chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.   Tocilizumab has come under close scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. Early observations from China...Read more

2020 03 Feb

Initial fluid resuscitation practices for patients with haemodynamic shock remain controversial. There is significant variability in these practices, and the impact of this is still poorly understood. Overall, non-patient-centred resuscitation practices, conflicting treatments, variability, and failure to meet targets for initial resuscitation are...Read more

2019 23 Nov

Sepsis has always carried high mortality. Even today, with all the latest technology and newer antibiotics, sepsis continues to be a major risk factor for death. It is important to understand that the earlier sepsis is diagnosed and treated, the better the prognosis. Each year, nearly 6 million people die of sepsis in the US.  Because of its aggressive...Read more

2019 14 Nov

Over the last few years, many advances have been made in the critical care of patients with septic shock. Both diagnosis and treatment strategies have improved. However, the mortality rates of patients with septic shock have a bimodal distribution; some patients die within a few days from it, while others die a few weeks later from other comorbidities. ...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 19 Sep

A clinical examination is usually made by caregivers as a way to detect signs of deterioration in critically ill patients. However, there have been some inconsistencies when it comes to the prognostic value of this exam.   A recent prospective cohort study of 1075 patients assessed whether there was an independent association with the findings from...Read more

2019 30 Aug

The paediatric management of hyperoxaemia (also defined as high PaO 2 or arterial oxygenation of greater or equal to 300mmHg) has so far yielded conflicting results. For multiple studies in adults, hyperoxaemia has been shown as an independent risk factor for mortality after cardiac arrest.   It was the purpose of a recent study to analyse the relationship...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 29 May

Patients in the intensive care unit are highly heterogeneous, and include elderly patients who generally have a long history of disease. Prediction of prognosis can often be difficult because of the severity of patient illness and disease history. Severity scores that are based on acute physiology measures are often used in the ICU to predict mortality....Read more

2019 15 May

In high-income countries, ageing patients with chronic comorbidities increase the need for ICU beds. This results in a significant burden for both the individual and the healthcare system. There has been some discussion regarding the benefits of ICU admission for elderly patients as it may lead to unnecessary invasive care and healthcare expenditure...Read more

2018 11 Dec

A group of researchers from France and six other countries assessed the influence of neutropaenia on outcome of critically ill cancer patients by meta-analysis of individual data. Among 7,512 critically ill cancer patients included in this systematic review, neutropaenia was independently associated with poor outcome despite a meaningful survival....Read more

2018 27 Nov

Researchers in Japan conducted a multicentre retrospective observational study to investigate the epidemiology of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in patients with sepsis. They found that patients with DIC diagnosed by two consensus criteria had higher severity and in-hospital mortality than patients without DIC. The study results confirm...Read more

2017 24 Oct

In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, the benefit of levosimendan in terms of survival was not shown in multicentre or in high-quality trials; however, levosimendan therapy was associated with reduced mortality in patients with preoperative ventricular systolic dysfunction, according to a new meta-analysis published in the journal Critical Care....Read more

2017 03 Oct

Researchers in Spain have developed a new tool to better assess risk of mortality from heart failure. The simple tool makes use of readily available data to accurately estimate the 30-day mortality risk for patients admitted to the emergency department with acute heart failure, according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Emergency...Read more

2017 13 Sep

On World Sepsis Day, 13 September, JAMA has published new research into the incidence of sepsis in the United States. The challenges of tackling the sepsis burden include accurately measuring sepsis incidence and trends. Clinical diagnoses of sepsis may be subjective, and insurance claims data, a traditional method of surveillance, can be affected...Read more

2017 07 Sep

The risk of dying in the intensive care unit (ICU) is higher for patients admitted at the weekend compared to a weekday, according to a study published in Critical Care . On the other hand the risk of dying in the ICU on a weekend was found to be lower than on a weekday, highlighting the complexity of the so-called 'weekend effect’. While the causes...Read more