Acta Medica Port
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Family Satisfaction in Intensive Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using the FS-ICU24 Questionnaire.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused an abrupt change in the pattern of communication involving patients, family members, and healthcare professionals. This study aimed to evaluate family member satisfaction with intensive care units (ICU) care and communication strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary objectives included identification of areas requiring improvement, and assessment of the impact of both COVID-19 diagnosis and in-person visits on overall satisfaction. ⋯ This is one of the first studies to assess satisfaction among family members of ICU patients during COVID-19 restrictions and the first, as far as we know, performed in the Portuguese population. The overall satisfaction levels were similar to the estimates found in previous studies. A lower degree of satisfaction with information consistency was found in family members who had in-person visits, possibly related with heterogeneity of senior doctors delivering information. COVID-19 diagnosis was not associated with decreased satisfaction.
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Review Case Reports
Serratia marcescens Endocarditis: A Case Report and Literature Review.
Serratia marcescens is a rarely implicated agent in endocarditis. We describe a case of a patient that underwent aortic and mitral valve replacement for Streptococcus agalactiae endocarditis. Four months later, he was readmitted with an ischemic stroke and fever. ⋯ It is widely accepted that treatment should be prolonged and include a combination of antimicrobial agents. Morbidity and mortality are high, particularly when there's the need for surgical replacement. In this case, however, the patient ended-up only requiring medical treatment due to the favourable response.
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Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common causes of enteritis. In rare cases, extraintestinal infection can occur, with a handful of cases of cardiac involvement, of which the pathophysiological mechanism is unclear. ⋯ To the best of our knowledge, this is the third case of pericarditis caused by Campylobacter jejuni reported in the literature, the second in a patient with X-linked agammaglobulinemia. Despite its rarity, this case serves as a reminder of Campylobacter as a potential cause of cardiac inflammation for clinicians treating pericarditis/myocarditis, especially in patients with a history of diarrhea or immunosuppression.