Anesthesiology critical care

BACKGROUND: Managing postoperative pain while minimizing opioid-related adverse drug events (ORADEs) remains a significant challenge. The OPI•AID Zone Tool is proposed as a novel clinical decision support tool that - both graphically and in a scoring-system - represents the relationship between pain management and the occurrence of ORADEs, aiming to enhance patient outcomes in postoperative care. The OPI•AID Zone Tool places pain score on the x-axis and an ORADE score on the y-axis, and stratifies patients into five zones to reflect the composite impact of pain severity and ORADEs on the quality of postoperative patient care...

BACKGROUND: Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) provide rapid and specialized care to critically ill or injured patients. Norwegian HEMS in Central Norway serves an important role in pre-hospital emergency medical care. To grade the severity of patients, HEMS uses the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' (NACA) severity score. The objective of this study was to describe the short- and long term mortality overall and in each NACA-group for patients transported by HEMS Trondheim using linkage of HEMS and hospital data...

BACKGROUND: The decision to maintain or halt antiplatelet medication in septic patients admitted to intensive care units presents a clinical dilemma. This is due to the necessity to balance the benefits of preventing thromboembolic incidents and leveraging anti-inflammatory properties against the increased risk of bleeding. METHODS: This study involves a secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort study focusing on patients diagnosed with severe sepsis or septic shock...

BACKGROUND: Anesthesiology plays a crucial role in perioperative care, critical care, and pain management, impacting patient experiences and clinical outcomes. However, our understanding of the anesthesiology research landscape is limited. Accordingly, we initiated a data-driven analysis through topic modeling to uncover research trends, enabling informed decision-making and fostering progress within the field. METHODS: The easyPubMed R package was used to collect 32,300 PubMed abstracts spanning from 2000 to 2022...

PURPOSE: Few guidelines exist for the perioperative management (PM) of neonates with surgical conditions (SC). This study examined the current neonatal PM in Italy. METHODS: We invited 51 neonatal intensive care units with pediatric surgery in their institution to participate in a web-based survey. The themes included (1) the involvement of the neonatologist during the PM; (2) the spread of bedside surgery (BS); (3) the critical issues concerning the neonatal PM in operating rooms (OR) and the actions aimed at improving the PM...

The New Dunedin Hospital (NDH) is New Zealand's largest health infrastructure build. Here we describe the use of a simple simulation-based hospital design exercise to inform the appropriate lift car size for critical care intrahospital transfers in the NDH. The intensive care unit (ICU) user group tested a series of entries and exits of simulated complex patient transfers in mocked-up lift cars of three different dimensions. Time taken to enter and exit the lift were recorded, reflecting the relative difficulty of transfer...

This review highlights noteworthy literature published in 2023 and pertinent to anesthesiologists and critical care physicians caring for patients undergoing abdominal organ transplantation. We feature 9 studies from 593 peer-reviewed papers on pancreatic transplantation, 3 from 194 on intestinal transplantation, and 28 from over 4513 on kidney transplantation. The liver transplantation section includes a special focus on 20 studies from 5666 clinical trial publications. We explore a broad range of topics, including donor management, perioperative recipient management, and innovative pharmacologic and mechanical interventions tested for the improvement of patient and graft outcomes and survival...

Notable clinical research published in 2023 related to cardiac anesthesia included studies focused on resuscitation and pharmacology, regional anesthesia, technological advances, and novel gene therapies. We reviewed 241 articles to identify 25 noteworthy studies that represent the most significant research related to cardiac anesthesia from the past year. Overall, improvements in clinical practice have enabled decreased morbidity and mortality with a renewed focus on mechanical circulatory support and transplantation...

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic created conditions of scarcity that led many provinces within Canada to develop triage protocols for critical care resources. In this study, we sought to undertake a narrative synthesis and ethical analysis of early provincial pandemic triage protocols. METHODS: We collected provincial triage protocols through personal correspondence with academic and political stakeholders between June and August 2020. Protocol data were extracted independently by two researchers and compared for accuracy and agreement...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are the most commonly prescribed drugs for preventing upper gastrointestinal bleeding in critically ill patients. However, concerns have arisen about the possible harms of using PPIs, including potentially increased risk of pneumonia, Clostridioides difficile infection, and more seriously, an increased risk of death in the most severely ill patients. Triggered by the REVISE trial, which is a forthcoming large randomized trial comparing pantoprazole to placebo in invasively mechanically ventilated patients, we will conduct this systematic review to evaluate the efficacy and safety of PPIs versus no prophylaxis for critically ill patients...

BACKGROUND: Variation in usual practice in fluid trials assessing lower versus higher volumes may affect overall comparisons. To address this, we will evaluate the effects of heterogeneity in treatment intensity in the Conservative versus Liberal Approach to Fluid Therapy of Septic Shock in Intensive Care trial. This will reflect the effects of differences in site-specific intensities of standard fluid treatment due to local practice preferences while considering participant characteristics...

PURPOSE: Insufficient evidence-based recommendations to guide care for patients with devastating brain injuries (DBIs) leave patients vulnerable to inconsistent practice at the emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU) interface. We sought to characterize the beliefs of Canadian emergency medicine (EM) and critical care medicine (CCM) physician site directors regarding current management practices for patients with DBI. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of EM and CCM physician directors of adult EDs and ICUs across Canada (December 2022 to March 2023)...

OBJECTIVE: This study assesses the knowledge, practices, and attitudes of medical staff in intensive care units (ICUs) regarding oral hygiene care for critically ill, bedridden patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study included 65 employees from the Intensive Care Units of the Sestre Milosrdnice Clinical Hospital Centre (CHC SM) and the Clinic for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care at the University Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb (CHC ZG). A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess knowledge, methods, frequency, and attitudes towards oral care for mechanically ventilated patients...

BACKGROUND: Limited data exists regarding the impact of anesthesia residents on operating room efficiency and patient safety outcomes. This investigation hypothesized that supervised anesthesiology residents do not increase anesthesia-controlled or prolonged extubation times compared to supervised certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA)/certified anesthesiologist assistants (CAA) or anesthesiologists working independently. Secondary objectives included differences in critical outcomes such as intraoperative hypotension, cardiac and pulmonary complications, acute kidney injury, and mortality...

BACKGROUND: As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe at the beginning of 2020, healthcare systems were forced to rapidly adapt and expand to meet the sudden surge in demand for intensive care services. This study is the first systematic analysis of the strategies employed by German hospitals to recruit personnel and expand bed capacities during the first wave of the pandemic, and to evaluate the effectiveness of those recruitment measures. METHODS: 152 German hospitals with intensive care capacities were selected and invited to participate in an online-based retrospective survey...

BACKGROUND: Although peer-assisted learning is known to be effective for reciprocal learning in medical education, it has been understudied in simulation. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of peer-led compared to instructor-led debriefing for non-technical skill development in simulated crisis scenarios. METHODS: Sixty-one undergraduate medical students were randomized into the control group (instructor-led debriefing) or an intervention group (peer debriefer or peer debriefee group)...

Foot drop is a condition characterized by the inability to lift the foot upwards towards the shin bone. This condition may affect a proportion of critically ill patients, impacting on their recovery after the acute phase of the illness. The occurrence of foot drop in critical care patients may result from various underlying causes, including neurological injuries, muscular dysfunction, nerve compression, or vascular compromise. Understanding the etiology and assessing the severity of foot drop in these patients is essential for implementing appropriate management strategies and ensuring better patient outcomes...

BACKGROUND: Critically ill patients in intensive care units (ICU) are frequently administered broad-spectrum antibiotics (e.g., carbapenems or piperacillin/tazobactam) for suspected or confirmed infections. This retrospective cohort study aimed to describe the use of carbapenems and piperacillin/tazobactam in two international, prospectively collected datasets. METHODS: We conducted a post hoc analysis of data from the "Adjunctive Glucocorticoid Therapy in Patients with Septic Shock" (ADRENAL) trial (n = 3713) and the "Antimicrobial de-escalation in the critically ill patient and assessment of clinical cure" (DIANA) study (n = 1488)...

BACKGROUND: Transfusion of red blood cells (RBC) to rapidly increase hemoglobin levels have been associated with increased risks and worse outcomes in critically ill children. The international TAXI consensus from 2018 (pediatric critical care transfusion and anemia expertise initiative) recommended restrictive RBC transfusion strategies in pediatric patients. OBJECTIVE: To elucidate physicians perioperative RBC transfusion trigger strategies for pediatric patients in the Nordic countries and to investigate what factors influence the decision to transfuse this group of patients...