Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2016
Letter Observational StudyConstipation is independently associated with delirium in critically ill ventilated patients.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2016
Multicenter Study Clinical TrialChanging use of noninvasive ventilation in critically ill patients: trends over 15 years in francophone countries.
Over the last two decades, noninvasive ventilation (NIV) has been proposed in various causes of acute respiratory failure (ARF) but some indications are debated. Current trends in NIV use are unknown. ⋯ Increases in NIV use and success rate, an overall decrease in mortality, and a decrease of the adverse impact NIV failure has in de novo ARF suggest better patient selection and greater proficiency of staff in administering NIV.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2016
ReviewCholestatic liver (dys)function during sepsis and other critical illnesses.
In ICU patients, abnormal liver tests are common. Markers of cholestasis are associated with adverse outcome. Research has focused on the possibility that mild hyperbilirubinemia, instead of indicating inadvertent cholestasis, may be adaptive and beneficial. These new insights are reviewed and integrated in the state-of-the-art knowledge on hepatobiliary alterations during sepsis and other critical illnesses. ⋯ The increase in circulating levels of conjugated bile acids and bilirubin in response to acute sepsis/critical illnesses may not necessarily point to cholestasis as a pathophysiological entity. Instead it may be the result of an adaptively altered bile acid production and transport back towards the systemic circulation. How these changes could be beneficial for survival should be further investigated.