PURPOSE The impact of resident rotation on patient outcomes in the intensive care unit (ICU) has been poorly studied. The aim of this study was to address this question using a large ICU database. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed the French CUB-REA database. French residents rotate every six months. Two periods were compared: the first (POST) and fifth (PRE) months of the rotation. The pri...

Background: Having a loved one admitted to the ICU is an extraordinarily stressful event, principally with poor prognosis and when death may occur. Aim: To evaluate the impact of poor prognosis patients admitted in the ICU on their family member’s emotional disorders. Design and setting: Prospective study conducted in a 22-bed mixed ICU in a tertiary hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Family member...

Glutamine depletion is demonstrated to be an independent predictor of hospital mortality in ICU (intensive care unit) patients. Today glutamine supplementation is recommended to ICU patients on parenteral nutrition. In addition to glutamine, glutathione may be a limiting factor in ICU patients with MOF (multiple organ failure). To study the prevalence of glutamine and glutathione depletion an o...

OBJECTIVES To describe the occurrence of delirium in a cohort of older medical intensive care unit (ICU) patients and its short-term duration in the hospital and to determine the association between preexisting dementia and the occurrence of delirium. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING Fourteen-bed medical ICU of an 800-bed university teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS One hundred eigh...

OBJECTIVES To determine if a quality improvement intervention improves sleep and delirium/cognition. DESIGN Observational, pre-post design. SETTING A tertiary academic hospital in the United States. PATIENTS 300 medical ICU patients. INTERVENTIONS This medical ICU-wide project involved a "usual care" baseline stage, followed by a quality improvement stage incorporating multifaceted slee...

Intensivists may be unaware of the longer term consequences of intensive therapies for their patients, and several paper reports in the present issue focus on the post-intensive care unit (ICU) hospital and community morbidity and mortality. This of course encompasses ethical issues concerning the futility of intensive care in certain circumstances, and the elderly population is highlighted in ...

BACKGROUND Before discharging a patient from the ICU, an adequate patient evaluation is needed to detect individuals as high risk for unfavorable outcome. A pro- or anti-inflammatory status is a potential risk factor for an adverse outcome, and elevated CRP concentrations have shown to correlate with organ failure. Several studies have been performed to evaluate the use of CRP as a marker of po...

Methods Quasi-experimental before-after study in a 14-bed medical-surgical ICU in Argentina. Consecutive patients on mechanical ventilation (MV) >3 days, over a preand a post-intervention (Pre-I and Post-I) period were included. In each period, we recorded: epidemiological variables, reason for admission, severity-of-illness score on admission (APACHE II and SOFA24), duration of MV and ICU stay...