Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2009
Multicenter Study Clinical TrialThe impact of body position on intra-abdominal pressure measurement: a multicenter analysis.
Elevated intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) is a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality among the critically ill. IAP is most commonly measured using the intravesicular or "bladder" technique. The impact of changes in body position on the accuracy of IAP measurements, such as head of bed elevation to reduce the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia, remains unclear. ⋯ Head of bed elevation results in clinically significant increases in measured IAP. Consistent body positioning from one IAP measurement to the next is necessary to allow consistent trending of IAP for accurate clinical decision making. Studies that involve IAP measurements should describe the patient's body position so that these values may be properly interpreted.
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Fever in the neurocritical care setting is common and has a negative impact on outcome of all disease types. Meta-analyses have demonstrated that fever at onset and in the acute setting after ischemic brain injury, intracerebral hemorrhage, and cardiac arrest has a negative impact on morbidity and mortality. Data support that the impact of fever is sustained for longer durations after subarachnoid hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury. ⋯ However, there are no prospective randomized trials demonstrating the benefit of fever control in these patient populations, and important questions regarding indications and timing remain. The purpose of this review is to analyze the data surrounding the impact of fever across a range of neurologic injuries to better understand the optimal timing and duration of fever control. Prospective randomized trials are needed to determine whether the beneficial impact of secondary injury prevention is outweighed by the potential risks of prolonged fever control.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2009
ReviewPrinciples of antibacterial dosing in continuous renal replacement therapy.
To outline the concepts involved in optimizing antibacterial dosing in critically ill patients with acute renal failure undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), provide a strategy for optimizing dosing, and summarize the data required to implement the strategy. ⋯ Appropriate dose calculation requires knowledge of the pharmacokinetic target and the usual minimum inhibitory concentration of the suspected organism in the patient's locality (or if unavailable, the break point for the organism), published pharmacokinetic data (volume of distribution, non-CRRT clearance) on critically ill patients receiving CRRT (which may differ substantially from noncritically ill patients or those without renal failure), the sieving or saturation coefficient of the relevant drug in critically ill patients, the dose and mode of CRRT being used, and the actual dose of CRRT that is delivered. This large number of variables results in considerable inter- and intrapatient heterogeneity in dose requirements. This article provides basic principles and relevant data to guide the clinician in prescribing individualized dosing regimes.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2009
ReviewHypothermia for the treatment of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.
Hypothermia is considered nature's "gold standard" for neuroprotection, and its efficacy for improving outcome in patients with hypoxic-ischemic brain injury as a result of cardiac arrest is well-established. Hypothermia reduces brain edema and intracranial pressure in patients with traumatic brain injury. By contrast, only a few small pilot studies have evaluated hypothermia as a treatment for acute ischemic stroke, and no controlled trials of hypothermia for hemorrhagic stroke have been performed. ⋯ Sustained fever control is feasible in patients with intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage, but has yet to be tested in a phase III study. Important observations from studies investigating the use of hypothermia for stroke to date include the necessity for proactive antishivering therapy for successful cooling, the importance of slow controlled rewarming to avoid rebound brain edema, and the high risk for infectious and cardiovascular complications in this patient population. More research is clearly needed to bring us closer to the successful application of hypothermia in the treatment for stroke.
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A complex network of biological mediators underlies the clinical syndrome of sepsis. The nonspecific physiologic criteria of sepsis syndrome or the systemic inflammatory response syndrome do not adequately identify patients who might benefit from either conventional anti-infective therapies or from novel therapies that target specific mediators of sepsis. Validated biomarkers of sepsis may improve diagnosis and therapeutic decision making for these high-risk patients. ⋯ Biomarkers promise to transform sepsis from a physiologic syndrome to a group of distinct biochemical disorders. This transformation could aid therapeutic decision making, and hence improve the prognosis for patients with sepsis, but will require an unprecedented degree of systematic investigation and collaboration.