Articles: mortality.
-
Intra-abdominal infections are still associated with high rate of morbidity and mortality. A multidisciplinary approach to the management of patients with intra-abdominal infections may be an important factor in the quality of care. ⋯ A World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) Consensus Conference was held in Bologna on July 2010, during the 1st congress of the WSES, involving surgeons, infectious disease specialists, pharmacologists, radiologists and intensivists with the goal of defining recommendations for the early management of intra-abdominal infections. This document represents the executive summary of the final guidelines approved by the consensus conference.
-
Objectives Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is a major cause of maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide. Experimental studies support the hypothesis that oxytocin administration during labour, a common although not evidence-based practice, may increase the risk of atonic PPH. The clinical studies, however, are inconclusive. ⋯ In women who had prophylactic oxytocin after delivery, this association was significant only for the highest exposure categories. Conclusions Oxytocin during labour appears to be an independent risk factor for severe PPH. The results emphasise the need for guidelines clarifying the evidence-based indications for this procedure and the minimal useful regimens.
-
Objective Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) is most widely used as a mortality prediction score in US intensive care units (ICUs), but its calculation is onerous. The authors aimed to develop and validate automatic mapping of physicians' admission diagnoses to structured concepts for automated APACHE IV calculation. Methods This retrospective study was conducted in medical ICUs of a tertiary healthcare and academic centre. ⋯ The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test demonstrated good calibration of automatically calculated APACHE IV score (χ(2)=6.46; p=0.6). The automatic tool demonstrated excellent discrimination with an area under the curve value of 0.87 (95% CI 0.83 to 0.92) and good calibration (p=0.58) in the validation cohort of 593 patients. Conclusion A Boolean-logic text search is an efficient alternative to manual database entry for mapping of ICU admission diagnosis to structured APACHE IV concepts.
-
Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2011
Review Meta AnalysisVitamin D supplementation for prevention of mortality in adults.
The available evidence on vitamin D and mortality is inconclusive. ⋯ Vitamin D in the form of vitamin D(3) seems to decrease mortality in predominantly elderly women who are mainly in institutions and dependent care. Vitamin D(2), alfacalcidol, and calcitriol had no statistically significant effect on mortality. Vitamin D(3) combined with calcium significantly increased nephrolithiasis. Both alfacalcidol and calcitriol significantly increased hypercalcaemia.
-
The clinical determination of the intravascular volume can be extremely difficult in critically ill and injured patients as well as those undergoing major surgery. This is problematic because fluid loading is considered the first step in the resuscitation of hemodynamically unstable patients. Yet, multiple studies have demonstrated that only approximately 50% of hemodynamically unstable patients in the intensive care unit and operating room respond to a fluid challenge. ⋯ These tests dynamically monitor the change in stroke volume after a maneuver that increases or decreases venous return (preload) and challenges the patients' Frank-Starling curve. These dynamic tests use the change in stroke volume during mechanical ventilation or after a passive leg raising maneuver to assess fluid responsiveness. The stroke volume is measured continuously and in real-time by minimally invasive or noninvasive technologies, including Doppler methods, pulse contour analysis, and bioreactance.