Critical care medicine
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Severe sepsis requires timely management and has high mortality if care is delayed. Hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients are more likely to be immunocompromised and are predisposed to serious infections. Reports of outcomes of severe sepsis in this population are limited to data from single, tertiary care centers, and national outcomes data are missing. ⋯ Hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients are more likely to develop severe sepsis and die following a severe sepsis episode than nontransplant patients. Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients and those who do not develop graft-versus-host disease have significantly better outcomes than allogeneic and graft-versus-host disease patients.
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Critical care medicine · Feb 2015
A Qualitative Investigation of Patients' and Caregivers' Experiences of Severe Sepsis.
To explore and describe the subjective experiences and long-term impact of severe sepsis on survivors of severe sepsis and their informal caregivers (e.g., spouse or family member) through qualitative research methods. ⋯ The study extends what was understood about severe sepsis from the patients' and caregivers' perspectives from the previous limited literature. Caregivers as well as patients reported enduring impact. The study also identified problems of lack of awareness of diagnosis and understanding of severe sepsis by patients and caregivers and difficulties accessing appropriate healthcare providers and ancillary services after discharge from hospital.
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Critical care medicine · Feb 2015
The Epidemiology of Chronic Critical Illness in the United States.
The epidemiology of chronic critical illness is not well characterized. We sought to determine the prevalence, outcomes, and associated costs of chronic critical illness in the United States. ⋯ Using a consensus-based definition, the prevalence, hospital mortality, and costs of chronic critical illness are substantial. Chronic critical illness is particularly common in the elderly although in very old patients the prevalence declines, in part because of an increase in early mortality among potentially eligible patients.
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Critical care medicine · Feb 2015
Postoperative Pro-Adrenomedullin Levels Predict Mortality in Thoracic Surgery Patients: Comparison With Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV Score*.
Risk assessment in ICU patients using commonly used prognostic models may be influenced using different data definitions and by errors in data collection. We investigated whether a set of biomarkers (procalcitonin, MR-pro-adrenomedullin, CT-pro-endothelin-1, CT-pro-arginine vasopressin, and MR-pro-atrial natriuretic peptide), alone or as a panel, could be useful in postoperative risk assessment for hospital mortality in comparison with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV score. ⋯ In elective cardiac surgery, MR-pro-adrenomedullin measured between 6 and 18 hours after admission to the ICU is a better predictor of hospital mortality in comparison with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV score.
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Critical care medicine · Feb 2015
Dysphagia-A Common, Transient Symptom in Critical Illness Polyneuropathy: A Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing Study.
Critical illness polyneuropathy is a common disorder in the neurological ICU. Dysphagia is well known to deteriorate outcome in the ICU. The prevalence of dysphagia in critical illness polyneuropathy is not known. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of dysphagia in critical illness polyneuropathy using fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing. ⋯ Dysphagia is frequent among patients with critical illness polyneuropathy treated in the ICU. Old age, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the mode of mechanical ventilation, the prevalence of tracheal tubes, and behavioral "learned nonuse" may all be contributing factors for the development of dysphagia in critical illness polyneuropathy. Complete recovery occurs in a high percentage of affected individuals within 4 weeks.