Articles: cations.
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Critical care medicine · Aug 2018
Multicenter Study Observational StudyA Multicenter Observational Study of Family Participation in ICU Rounds.
Guidelines recommend offering family members of critically ill patients the option to attend interdisciplinary team rounds as a way to improve communication and satisfaction. Uncertainty remains around the benefits and risks. ⋯ Our results suggest family attendance in ICU rounds is associated with longer duration of rounds, but not the frequency of trainee teaching, discussions of prognosis, or quality of rounds. Family attendance in rounds may enhance communication and complement family conferences.
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Critical care medicine · Aug 2018
Multicenter StudyCardiac Arrest in Patients Managed for Convulsive Status Epilepticus: Characteristics, Predictors, and Outcome.
Cardiac arrest is a catastrophic event that may arise during the management of convulsive status epilepticus. We aimed to report the clinical characteristics, outcomes, and early predictors of convulsive status epilepticus-related cardiac arrest. ⋯ In patients managed for convulsive status epilepticus, relative hypoxemia, on-scene management complications, and drug poisoning as the cause of convulsive status epilepticus were strong early predictors of cardiac arrest, suggesting areas for improvement.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Aug 2018
Comparative StudyComparing Methods for Cardiac Output: Intraoperatively Doppler-Derived Cardiac Output Measured With 3-Dimensional Echocardiography Is Not Interchangeable With Cardiac Output by Pulmonary Catheter Thermodilution.
Estimation of cardiac output (CO) is essential in the treatment of circulatory unstable patients. CO measured by pulmonary artery catheter thermodilution is considered the gold standard but carries a small risk of severe complications. Stroke volume and CO can be measured by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), which is widely used during cardiac surgery. We hypothesized that Doppler-derived CO by 3-dimensional (3D) TEE would agree well with CO measured with pulmonary artery catheter thermodilution as a reference method based on accurate measurements of the cross-sectional area of the left ventricular outflow tract. ⋯ Despite low bias, the wide limits of agreement of Doppler-derived CO by 3D TEE compared to CO by thermodilution will limit clinical application and can therefore not be considered interchangeable with CO obtained by thermodilution. The lack of agreement is not explained by lack of agreement of the 3D technique.
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Long-term retention of trauma procedural core-competency skills and need for re-training after a 1-day cadaver-based course remains unknown. We measured and compared technical skills for trauma core competencies at mean 14 months (38 residents), 30 months (35 practicing surgeons), and 46 months (10 experts) after training to determine if skill degradation occurs with time. Technical performance during extremity vascular exposures and lower-extremity fasciotomy in fresh cadavers measured by validated individual procedure score (IPS) was the primary outcome. ⋯ Practicing surgeons with low trauma skills experience since training had lower IPS and component scores (p = 0.02 to 0.001) and more errors compared with experts and residents (p < 0.05). Surgeons, including experts with low interval experience performing trauma procedures, may benefit from refreshing of correct landmarks and skin incision placement identification.
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Critical care medicine · Aug 2018
Criteria to Identify a Potential Deceased Organ Donor: A Systematic Review.
To systematically review the global published literature defining a potential deceased organ donor and identifying clinical triggers for deceased organ donation identification and referral. ⋯ Use of the clinical criteria sets reported will reduce ambiguity associated with the deceased organ donor identification and the subsequent referral process, potentially reducing the number of missed donors and saving lives globally through increased transplantation.