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Items 1 - 12 of 12 |
One page. |
Nosocomial transmission of congenital tuberculosis in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Crockett M, King SM, Kitai I, Jamieson F, Richardson S, Malloy P, Yaffe B, Reynolds D, Hellmann J, Cutz E, Matlow A; Outbreak Investigation Team.
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Paediatrics, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Congenital tuberculosis is uncommon, and nosocomial transmission from a congenitally infected infant to another infant has not been reported in the English literature. We report an investigation of 2 infants with tuberculosis who were cared for in the same neonatal intensive care unit. Isolates from both infants were genetically indistinguishable. Transmission between the 2 infants was likely due to contaminated respiratory equipment.
PMID: 15578377 [PubMed - in process]
Clinical review: impact of emergency department care on intensive care unit costs.
Huang DT.
The CRISMA (Clinical Research, Investigation, and Systems Modeling of Acute Illness) Laboratory, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. huangdt@ccm.upmc.edu
Critical care is both expensive and increasing. Emergency department (ED) management of critically ill patients before intensive care unit (ICU) admission is an under-explored area of potential cost saving in the ICU. Although limited, current data suggest that ED care has a significant impact on ICU costs both positive and negative. ICU practices can also affect the ED, with a lack of ICU beds being the primary reason for ED overcrowding and ambulance diversion in the USA. Earlier application in the ED of intensive therapies such as goal-directed therapy and noninvasive ventilation may reduce ICU costs by decreasing length of stay and need for admission. Future critical care policies and health services research should include both the ED and ICU in their analyses.
PMID: 15566622 [PubMed - in process]
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Can electrophysiological assessments of brain function be useful to the intensive care physician in daily clinical practice?
Pandin PC.
Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Erasmus Hospital, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium. ppandin@ulb.ac.be
Changes in electroencephalogram parameters and auditory event-related potentials, induced by interruption to propofol sedation in intensive care patients, provide a number of electrophysiological measures that can be used to assess neurological function accurately. Studies of electroencephalogram parameters suggest that power spectral estimation, as root mean square power, is more useful and precise than spectral edge frequency 95% in evaluating the functional integrity of the brain. When such parameters are used to evaluate neurological function, in particular the N100 and mismatch negativity components, a precise assessment of a patient's readiness to awaken from a pharmacologically induced coma (such as sedation) can be obtained. In terms of ease of use, however, it is more difficult to establish whether N100 or mismatch negativity is superior.
Publication Types:
PMID: 15566613 [PubMed - in process]
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A stronger approach to weakness in the intensive care unit.
Young GB, Hammond RR.
Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. bryan.young@lhsc.on.ca
ICU-acquired limb and respiratory muscle weakness is a common, serious ICU syndrome, increasing in frequency with prolonged ICU stay and sepsis. A systematic approach facilitates precise localization of the problem within central or peripheral nervous system. Most cases relate to critical illness polyneuropathy or myopathy or a combination of both (critical illness neuromyopathy). Within the latter entity, the relative contribution of neuropathy versus myopathy varies considerably among affected patients. Muscle enzyme testing, electromyography-nerve conduction and muscle biopsy are valuable investigative tests. Nerve biopsy is less commonly needed, but is useful when vascultis is suspected.
Publication Types:
PMID: 15566605 [PubMed - in process]
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Variability science in intensive care - how relevant is it?
van de Borne P.
Department of Cardiology, Erasme Hospital, Brussels, Belgium. pvandebo@ulb.ac.be
The article by Seely et al. in this issue of Critical Care highlights that variability portend prognosis. Numerous parameters interact to modify variability in intensive care. The commentary discusses why variability can nevertheless accurately estimate prognosis and how easily this can be implemented in the critically ill.
Publication Types:
PMID: 15566604 [PubMed - in process]
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The effect of interruption to propofol sedation on auditory event-related potentials and electroencephalogram in intensive care patients.
Ypparila H, Nunes S, Korhonen I, Partanen J, Ruokonen E.
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Kuopio University Hospital, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland. heidi.ypparila@kuh.fi
INTRODUCTION: In this observational pilot study we evaluated the electroencephalogram (EEG) and auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) before and after discontinuation of propofol sedation in neurologically intact intensive care patients. METHODS: Nineteen intensive care unit patients received a propofol infusion in accordance with a sedation protocol. The EEG signal and the ERPs were measured at the frontal region (Fz) and central region (Cz), both during propofol sedation and after cessation of infusion when the sedative effects had subsided. The EEG signal was subjected to power spectral estimation, and the total root mean squared power and spectral edge frequency 95% were computed. For ERPs, we used an oddball paradigm to obtain the N100 and the mismatch negativity components. RESULTS: Despite considerable individual variability, the root mean squared power at Cz and Fz (P = 0.004 and P = 0.005, respectively) and the amplitude of the N100 component in response to the standard stimulus at Fz (P = 0.022) increased significantly after interruption to sedation. The amplitude of the N100 component (at Cz and Fz) was the only parameter that differed between sedation levels during propofol sedation (deep versus moderate versus light sedation: P = 0.016 and P = 0.008 for Cz and Fz, respectively). None of the computed parameters correlated with duration of propofol infusion. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that use of ERPs, especially the N100 potential, may help to differentiate between levels of sedation. Thus, they may represent a useful complement to clinical sedation scales in the monitoring of sedation status over time in a heterogeneous group of neurologically intact intensive care patients.
PMID: 15566595 [PubMed - in process]
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Discomfort and factual recollection in intensive care unit patients.
van de Leur JP, van der Schans CP, Loef BG, Deelman BG, Geertzen JH, Zwaveling JH.
Center for Rehabilitation, University Hospital Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. j.p.van.de.leur@rev.azg.nl
INTRODUCTION: A stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), although potentially life-saving, may cause considerable discomfort to patients. However, retrospective assessment of discomfort is difficult because recollection of stressful events may be impaired by sedation and severe illness during the ICU stay. This study addresses the following questions. What is the incidence of discomfort reported by patients recently discharged from an ICU? What were the sources of discomfort reported? What was the degree of factual recollection during patients' stay in the ICU? Finally, was discomfort reported more often in patients with good factual recollection? METHODS: All ICU patients older than 18 years who had needed prolonged (>24 hour) admission with tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation were consecutively included. Within three days after discharge from the ICU, a structured, in-person interview was conducted with each individual patient. All patients were asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of 14 questions specifically concerning the environment of the ICU they had stayed in. Furthermore, they were asked whether they remembered any discomfort during their stay; if they did then they were asked to specify which sources of discomfort they could recall. A reference group of surgical ward patients, matched by sex and age to the ICU group, was studied to validate the questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 125 patients discharged from the ICU were included in this study. Data for 123 ICU patients and 48 surgical ward patients were analyzed. The prevalence of recollection of any type of discomfort in the ICU patients was 54% (n = 66). These 66 patients were asked to identify the sources of discomfort, and presence of an endotracheal tube, hallucinations and medical activities were identified as such sources. The median (min-max) score for factual recollection in the ICU patients was 15 (0-28). The median (min-max) score for factual recollection in the reference group was 25 (19-28). Analysis revealed that discomfort was positively related to factual recollection (odds ratio 1.1; P < 0.001), especially discomfort caused by the presence of an endotracheal tube, medical activities and noise. Hallucinations were reported more often with increasing age. Pain as a source of discomfort was predominantly reported by younger patients. CONCLUSION: Among postdischarge ICU patients, 54% recalled discomfort. However, memory was often impaired: the median factual recollection score of ICU patients was significantly lower than that of matched control patients. The presence of an endotracheal tube, hallucinations and medical activities were most frequently reported as sources of discomfort. Patients with a higher factual recollection score were at greater risk for remembering the stressful presence of an endotracheal tube, medical activities and noise. Younger patients were more likely to report pain as a source of discomfort.
PMID: 15566593 [PubMed - in process]
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Population-based epidemiology of intensive care: critical importance of ascertainment of residency status.
Laupland KB.
Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary Health Region, and Calgary Laboratory Services, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. kevin.laupland@calgaryhealthregion.ca
INTRODUCTION: Few studies evaluating the epidemiology of critical illness have used strict population-based designs that exclude subjects external to the base population. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential effects of inclusion of nonresidents in population-based studies in intensive care. METHODS: A population-based cohort study including all adults admitted to Calgary Health Region (CHR) multidisciplinary and cardiovascular surgical intensive care units (ICUs) between 1 May 1999 and 30 April 2003 was conducted. A comparison of patients resident and nonresident in the base population was then performed. RESULTS: A total of 12,193 adult patients had at least one admission to an ICU; 7767 (63.7%) were CHR residents, for an incidence of 263.7 per 100,000 per year. Male CHR residents were at significant increased risk for ICU admission as compared with females (330.5 per 100,000 versus 198.2 per 100,000; relative risk, 1.67; 95% confidence interval, 1.59-1.74; P < 0.0001), as were CHR residents aged 65 years and older as compared with younger patients (1719.9 per 100,000 versus 238.7 per 100,000; relative risk, 7.21; 95% confidence interval, 6.95-7.47; P < 0.0001). The mortality rate was significantly lower among non-CHR residents (12.7%) as compared with CHR residents (20.0%; P < 0.0001). Logistic regression modeling identified CHR residency as an independent risk factor for death (odds ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-1.5; P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study provides information on the incidence of and demographic risk factors for admission to ICUs in a defined population. Inclusion of patients that are nonresident in base study populations may lead to gross errors in determination of the occurrence and outcomes of critical illness.
PMID: 15566588 [PubMed - in process]
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The rules of the game: interprofessional collaboration on the intensive care unit team.
Lingard L, Espin S, Evans C, Hawryluck L.
Department of Pediatrics and The Wilson Centre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. lorelei.lingard@utoronto.ca
BACKGROUND: The intensive care unit (ICU) is a nexus for interspecialty and interdisciplinary tensions because of its pivotal role in the care of the hospital's most critically ill patients and in the management of critical care resources. In an environment charged with temporal, financial and professional tensions, learning how to get results collaboratively is a critical aspect of professional competence. This study explored how team members in the ICU interact to achieve daily clinical goals, delineate professional boundaries and negotiate complex systems issues. METHODS: Seven 1-hour focus groups were conducted with ICU team members in two hospitals. Participants consisted of four nursing groups (n = 27), two resident groups (n = 6) and one intensivist group (n = 4). Interviews were audio-recorded, anonymized and transcribed. With the use of a standard qualitative approach, transcripts were analyzed iteratively for recurrent themes by four researchers. RESULTS: Team members articulated their perceptions of the mechanisms by which team collaboration was achieved or undermined in a complex and high-pressure context. Two mechanisms were recurrently described: the perception of 'ownership' and the process of 'trade'. Analysis of these mechanisms reveals how power is commodified, possessed and exchanged as team members negotiate their daily needs and goals with one another. CONCLUSION: Our data provide a non-idealized depiction of how health care professionals function on a team so as to meet both individual and collective goals. We contend that the concept of 'team' must move beyond the rhetoric of 'cooperation' and towards a more authentic depiction of the skills and strategies required to function in the competitive setting of the interprofessional health care team.
PMID: 15566584 [PubMed - in process]
Serratia marcescens outbreak in a neonatal intensive care unit prompting review of decontamination of laryngoscopes.
Cullen MM, Trail A, Robinson M, Keaney M, Chadwick PR.
Department of Microbiology, Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Trust, Hope Hospital, Stott Lane, Salford M6 8HD, UK.
Publication Types:
PMID: 15571857 [PubMed - in process]
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Evaluation of antibiotic use in intensive care units of a tertiary care hospital in Turkey.
Erbay A, Bodur H, Akinci E, Colpan A.
Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
The object of this study was to evaluate the appropriateness of antibiotic use in relation to diagnosis and bacteriological findings in the intensive care units (ICUs) of a 1100-bed referral and tertiary care hospital with an antibiotic restriction policy in Turkey. Between June and December 2002, patients who received antibiotics in the medical and surgical ICUs were evaluated prospectively. Two infectious diseases (ID) specialists assessed the antibiotics ordered daily. Of the 368 patients admitted to the ICUs, 223 (60.6%) received 440 antibiotics. The most frequently prescribed antibiotics were first-generation cephalosporins (16.1%), third-generation cephalosporins (15.2%), aminoglycosides (12.1%), carbapenems (10.7%) and ampicillin-sulbactam (8.7%). Antibiotic use was inappropriate in 47.3% of antibiotics. ID specialists recommended the use of 47% of all antibiotics. An antibiotic order without an ID consultation was more likely to be inappropriate [odds ratio (OR)=13.2, P<0.001, confidence intervals (CI)=4.4-39.5]. Antibiotics ordered empirically were found to be less appropriate than those ordered with evidence of culture and susceptibility results (OR=3.8, P=0.038, CI=1.1-13.1). Inappropriate antibiotic use was significantly higher in patients who had surgical interventions (OR=3.6, P=0.025, CI=1.2-10.8). Irrational antibiotic use was high for unrestricted antibiotics. In particular, antibiotic use was inappropriate in surgical ICUs. Additional interventions such as postgraduate training programmes and elaboration of local guidelines could be beneficial.
PMID: 15571854 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
End-of-life after birth: death and dying in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Singh J, Lantos J, Meadow W.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, and the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
OBJECTIVE: In canonical modern bioethics, withholding and withdrawing medical interventions for dying patients are considered morally equivalent. However, electing not to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) struck us as easily distinguishable from withdrawing mechanical ventilation. Moreover, withdrawing mechanical ventilation from a moribund infant "feels" different from withdrawing mechanical ventilation from a hemodynamically stable child with a severe neurologic insult. Most previous descriptions of withdrawing and withholding intervention in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) have blurred many of these distinctions. We hypothesized that clarifying them would more accurately portray the process of end-of-life decision-making in the NICU. METHODS: We reviewed the charts of all newborn infants who had birth weight >400 g and died in our hospital in 1988, 1993, and 1998 and extracted potential ethical issues (resuscitation, withdrawal, withholding, CPR, do-not-resuscitate orders, neurologic prognosis, ethics consult) surrounding each infant's death. RESULTS: Using traditional definitions, roughly half of all deaths in our NICU in 1993 and 1998 were associated with "withholding or withdrawing." In addition, by 1998, >40% of our NICU deaths could be labeled "active withdrawal," reflecting the extubation of infants regardless of their physiologic instability. This practice is growing over time. However, 2 important conclusions arise from our more richly elaborated descriptions of death in the NICU. First, when CPR was withheld, it most commonly occurred in the context of moribund infants who were already receiving ventilation and dopamine. Physiologically stable infants who were removed from mechanical ventilation for quality-of-life reasons accounted for only 3% of NICU deaths in 1988, 16% of NICU deaths in 1993, and 13% of NICU deaths in 1998. Moreover, virtually none of these active withdrawals took place in premature infants. Second, by 1998 infants, who died without CPR almost always had mechanical ventilation withdrawn. Finally, the median and average day of death for 100 nonsurvivors who received full intervention did not differ significantly from the 78 nonsurvivors for whom intervention was withheld. CONCLUSIONS: In our unit, a greater and greater percentage of doomed infants die without ever receiving chest compressions or epinephrine boluses. Rather, we have adopted a nuanced approach to withdrawing/withholding NICU intervention, providing what we hope is a humane approach to end-of-life decisions for doomed NICU infants. We suggest that ethical descriptions that reflect these nuances, distinguishing between withholding and withdrawing interventions from physiologically moribund infants or physiologically stable infants with morbid neurologic prognoses, provide a more accurate reflection of the circumstances of dying in the NICU.
PMID: 15574624 [PubMed - in process]
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