Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Editorial Comment
Expect the unexpected: clinical trials are key to understanding post-intensive care syndrome.
Long-term follow-up of randomized prospective trials of treatments in the intensive care unit may allow us to attain some understanding of the causes of post-intensive care syndrome. This in turn may allow us to produce better long-term outcomes among survivors of critical illness.
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The choice of fluid for resuscitation of the brain-injured patient remains controversial, and the 'ideal' resuscitation fluid has yet to be identified. Large volumes of hypotonic solutions must be avoided because of the risk of cerebral swelling and intracranial hypertension. ⋯ Roquilly and colleagues show a reduction in the development of hyperchloremic acidosis in brain-injured patients given 'balanced' solutions for maintenance and resuscitation compared with 0.9% sodium chloride. In this commentary, we explore the idea that we should move away from 0.9% sodium chloride in favor of a more 'physiological' solution.
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Editorial Comment
Optic nerve sheath diameter on initial brain CT, raised intracranial pressure and mortality after severe TBI: an interesting link needing confirmation.
Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) enlargement on initial computed tomography (CT) scan has been found to be associated with increased mortality after severe traumatic brain injury. This could offer the possibility to detect patients with raised intracranial pressure requiring urgent therapeutic interventions and/or invasive intracranial monitoring to guide the treatment. The method to measure ONSD using CT scan, however, needs further confirmation. Moreover, the link between ONSD enlargement on initial CT scan and raised intracranial pressure also needs to be confirmed by further studies.