Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2024
ReviewAn environmental scan of online resources for informal family caregivers of ICU survivors.
To collate a comprehensive repository of online resources for family caregivers of intensive care survivors to inform a recovery website and digital peer support programme. ⋯ This environmental scan identifies multiple resources addressing informational needs of family caregivers and highlights areas for resource development.
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2024
Letter ReviewHeart involvement: A neglected manifestation of haemophagocytic syndrome associated with high mortality.
Secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH) proceeds from uncontrolled and inefficient immune activation leading to hyper-inflammation and multi-organ damage. sHLH proceeds from a wide panel of infectious, auto immune and malignant conditions and bears high mortality despite treatment. Literature on sHLH does not mention heart involvement. We sought to describe occurrence of reversible heart dysfunction in the setting of HLH in order to motivate larger prospective studies assessing the causality link between both conditions. ⋯ This leads us to hypothesize that heart involvement confers worse prognosis to HLH. Formal accountability of HLH in the occurrence of cardiac manifestations is difficult to establish given the numerous differential diagnoses but reversibility of myocardial dysfunction in 14 survivors and results of two necropsies supported it. These data, and the current knowledge on the pathophysiology of both HLH and heart failure lead us to suggest that such a link may exist.
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2024
Effects of structured protocolized physical therapy on the duration of mechanical ventilation in patients with prolonged weaning.
20% of patients with mechanical ventilation (MV) have a prolonged, complex weaning process, often experiencing a condition of ICU-acquired weakness (ICUAW), with a severe decrease in muscle function and restricted long-term prognosis. We aimed to analyze a protocolized, systematic approach of physiotherapy in prolonged weaning patients and hypothesized that the duration of weaning from MV would be shortened. ⋯ Protocolized, systematic physiotherapy resulted in an improvement of the clinical outcome in patients with prolonged weaning. Results were objectifiable with the SOMS and the handgrip test.
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Assessment of the IVC by point-of-care ultrasound in the context of resuscitation has been a controversial topic in the last decades. Most of the focus had been on its use as a surrogate marker for fluid responsiveness, with results being equivocal. We review its important anatomical aspects as well as the physiological rationale behind ultrasound assessment and propose a new way to do so, as well as explain its central role in the concept of fluid tolerance.