Current opinion in critical care
-
Bleeding remains a challenge in surgery. A unique drug, recombinant factor VIIa, causes clotting exclusively at bleeding sites. Recombinant factor VIIa has recently been introduced to surgery where current evidence, consisting mostly of case reports, suggest remarkable safety and efficacy. The first randomized controlled trials are only now being published with less remarkable results. This manuscript summarizes the current evidence. ⋯ Current evidence does not yet support recombinant factor VIIa as standard of care in surgery. However, the evidence indicates that recombinant factor VIIa should be used in intracerebral hemorrhage and massive perioperative or traumatic bleeding refractory to conventional therapies. For now, the bedside decision to use recombinant factor VIIa remains a matter of surgical judgment.
-
Curr Opin Crit Care · Aug 2006
ReviewEvaluation of the abdomen in the critically ill patient: opening the black box.
Evaluation of the abdomen in critically ill patients can be challenging. This article reviews the available data and proposes evidence-based guidelines for evaluation of the abdomen in the critically ill patient. ⋯ Timely and accurate diagnosis of life-threatening intraabdominal pathology is essential to care for critically ill patients. A multitude of laboratory, radiologic, and interventional modalities are available to evaluate the abdomen in the critically ill.
-
Perioperative nutrition has been extensively studied, but numerous questions remain unanswered. This review focuses on new developments in nutrient delivery in the immediate perioperative period. Issues specifically addressed include which patients are most likely to benefit from perioperative nutritional supplementation, and the optimal route, timing, and quantity of nutrient delivery. ⋯ The particulars of nutritional support for perioperative and critically ill patients remain controversial. Recent studies addressing specific issues in this diverse discipline perhaps raise more questions than are answered. However, each new contribution to the literature brings us closer to an understanding of optimal nutritional management in the metabolically stressed patient.
-
This article summarizes the current state of damage-control laparotomy as practiced in trauma surgery. Since the first description of deliberately abbreviated laparotomy 20 years ago, damage-control laparotomy has been widely applied. The purpose of this review is to discuss current concepts in damage-control laparotomy in trauma and general surgery patients. ⋯ Application of abbreviated laparotomy has been widely applied in the trauma population. Breaking the pathophysiologic cycle of hypothermia, coagulopathy, and acidosis with this approach has improved survivorship in this critically injured group of patients. The extension of the abbreviated laparotomy concept has also been described in the general surgery population, and raises the possibility of extending this concept to broader surgical fields.
-
The conventional view in severe sepsis or septic shock is that most of the lactate that accumulates in the circulation is due to cellular hypoxia and the onset of anaerobic glycolysis. A number of papers have suggested that lactate formation during sepsis is not due to hypoxia. I discuss this hypothesis and outline the recent advances in the understanding of lactate metabolism in shock. ⋯ There is increasing evidence that sepsis is accompanied by a hypermetabolic state, with enhanced glycolysis and hyperlactataemia. This should not be rigorously interpreted as an indication of hypoxia. It now appears, at least in the hyperkinetic state, that increased lactate production and concentration as a result of hypoxia are often the exception rather than the rule.