Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
-
Achieving adequate but not excessive sedation in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients is a complex process. Analgesics and sedatives employed in this context are extremely potent, and drug requirements and metabolism are unpredictable. Clinicians must have heightened awareness of the potential for enduring effects and are encouraged to employ strategies that maximize benefit while minimizing risk. ⋯ Alternatively, daily interruption of continuous sedative infusions (the second category) may be employed to focus care providers on the goal of achieving a period of awakening in the earliest phases of critical illness possible. Newer literature has focused on the safety of this strategy and its comparison with intermittent drug administration. Ongoing investigations are evaluating the broad applicability of these types of protocols, and currently one may only speculate on whether one strategy is superior to another.
-
Resistance rates are increasing among several problematic Gram-negative pathogens that are often responsible for serious nosocomial infections, including Acinetobacter spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and (because of their production of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase) Enterobacteriaceae. The presence of multiresistant strains of these organisms has been associated with prolonged hospital stays, higher health care costs, and increased mortality, particularly when initial antibiotic therapy does not provide coverage of the causative pathogen. ⋯ Taken together, these observations underscore the importance of a 'hit hard and hit fast' approach to treating serious nosocomial infections, particularly when it is suspected that multiresistant pathogens are responsible. They also point to the need for a multidisciplinary effort to combat resistance, which should include improved antimicrobial stewardship, increased resources for infection control, and development of new antimicrobial agents with activity against multiresistant Gram-negative pathogens.