Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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There are only limited data on the long-term outcome of patients receiving specialized neurocritical care. In this study we analyzed survival, long-term mortality and functional outcome after neurocritical care and determined predictors for good functional outcome. ⋯ This investigation revealed that age, LOV and TISS-28 on Day 1 were strongly predictive for the outcome. The diagnoses of hemorrhagic stroke and cerebral neoplasm leading to neurocritical care predispose for functional dependence or death, whereas patients with GBS and MG are more likely to recover after neurocritical care.
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Comparative Study
Arterial pressure-based cardiac output in septic patients: different accuracy of pulse contour and uncalibrated pressure waveform devices.
We compared the ability of two devices estimating cardiac output from arterial pressure-curve analysis to track the changes in cardiac output measured with transpulmonary thermodilution induced by volume expansion and norepinephrine in sepsis patients. ⋯ The CIpc was reliable and accurate for assessing the CI changes induced by volume expansion and norepinephrine. By contrast, the CIpw poorly tracked the trends in CI induced by those therapeutic interventions.
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Predictive models, such as acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE-II), are widely used in intensive care units (ICUs) to estimate mortality. Although the presence of delirium is associated with a higher mortality in ICU patients, delirium is not part of the APACHE-II model. The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether delirium, present within 24 hours after ICU admission, improves the predictive value of the APACHE-II score. ⋯ Although delirium is a significant predictor of mortality in ICU patients, adding delirium as an additional variable to the APACHE-II model does not result in an improvement in its predictive estimates.
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The optimal blood glucose target following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) must be defined. Cerebral microdialysis was used to investigate the influence of arterial blood and brain glucose on cerebral glucose, lactate, pyruvate, glutamate, and calculated indices of downstream metabolism. ⋯ Arterial blood glucose levels appear to be optimal at 6-9 mM. While low brain glucose levels below 1 mM are detrimental, elevated brain glucose are to be targeted despite increased brain glutamate at brain glucose >5 mM. Pathogenity of elevated glutamate appears to be relativized by L/Glu and suggests to exclude insulin- induced brain injury.
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Critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation frequently suffer from intensive care unit delirium, a syndrome associated with numerous poor measured outcomes. The relationship between delirium, sepsis, and sedation is complex. A discussion of the recent study ('Effect of dexmedetomidine versus lorazepam on outcome in patients with sepsis: an a priori-designed analysis of the MENDS [maximizing efficacy of targeted sedation and reducing neurological dysfunction] randomized controlled trial') by Pandharipande and colleagues is presented in this commentary.