Chest
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Review Case Reports
Positive Stimulation for Medically Sedated Patients: A Music Therapy Intervention to Treat Sedation-Related Delirium in Critical Care.
Sedation is an essential component of treatment for some patients admitted to the ICU, but it carries a risk of sedation-related delirium. Sedation-related delirium is associated with higher mortality and increased length of stay, but pharmacologic treatments for delirium can lead to oversedation or other adverse effects. Therefore, nonpharmacologic treatments are recommended in the literature; however, these recommendations are quite general and do not provide structured interventions. ⋯ The positive listening stimulation playlist organized by a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) within the PSMSP protocol can be used in carefully monitored sessions with the MT-BC potentially to decrease agitation and stabilize arousal, as well as being played by nursing staff throughout the patient's recovery from sedation. Further controlled studies will be necessary, but the PSMSP protocol has the potential to reduce agitation and increase arousal during listening, as highlighted by the case of a patient recovering from sedation during treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia. It is important for the entire critical care team to be aware of nonpharmacologic treatments like PSMSP that are available for delirium mitigation so that, where applicable, these therapies can be incorporated into the patient's treatment regimen.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Optimizing COPD Acute Care Patient Outcomes Using a Standardized Transition Bundle and Care-Coordinator: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) are associated with high morbidity and mortality and frequent readmissions. ⋯ The COPD transition bundle reduced 7- and 30-day hospital readmissions while increasing LOS and ED revisits. The care coordinator did not improve outcomes.
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Interstitial lung disease (ILD) results in profound symptom burden and carries high mortality. Palliative care (PC) is dedicated to improving quality of life in patients with serious illness. Early PC provision improves rates of advance care planning and symptom management in patients with ILD. ⋯ Most ILD providers use PC and are comfortable discussing PC. Barriers to PC identified in this survey include the following: perceived lack of local access to PC, lack of systematic tools to assess symptom burden, lack of established optimal timing of PC referral, and unclear need for specialized PC delivery.
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A 60-year-old woman, a care worker with no known comorbidities, presented to the pulmonary clinic for assessment of a left hilar tumor detected on chest radiography. She had a history of oophorocystectomy and was a 0.5-pack/day smoker. She was asymptomatic but desired a confirmative diagnosis.