EDITORIAL Interleukin-6 Receptor Inhibition in Covid-19 — Cooling the Inflammatory Soup Eric J. Rubin, Dan L. Longo, Lindsey R. Baden N Engl J Med February 25, 2021DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe2103108 Viruses cannot replicate by themselves. Instead, they rely on the host for almost all their replicative functions. Similarly, many viruses are unable to cause damage without the host immune system. Because of this, two strategies can often ameliorate disease — antivirals, w...

Editor's Note February 23, 2021 Funding and DSMB Membership in the VICTAS Clinical Trial Howard Bauchner, Phil B. Fontanarosa, Robert M. Golub JAMA. 2021;325(8):751-752. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.25952 Two unusual circumstances arose in the conduct, review, and publication of the VICTAS randomized clinical trial.1 First, the funder reportedly withdrew financial support for the study after enrollment of only 25% of the planned study sample, resu...

COVID-19 Consequences Six Months After Symptom Onset Findings from a follow-up study conducted with 1733 patients first diagnosed in Wuhan, China, show that nearly 76% of these patients had at least one symptom six months after symptom onset. Findings are published in The Lancet. The study included patients discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan, China, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between January and May and who were followed to June and September. ...

Editorials Covid-19 controversies: the tocilizumab chapter Erin K McCreary, Nuala J Meyer BMJ 2021; 372: n244 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n244 The signals are broadly positive, but not definitive More than two million people have so far died from coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) globally. With hospitals and intensive care units at or exceeding capacity in much of the world, discovering life-saving treatments is second only to global vaccination effo...

Nebulised Heparin for Patients with ARDS Mechanical ventilation in the ICU for 48 hours or longer is known to be associated with ARDS, which could be present either when ventilatory support is initiated or develop afterwards, typically during the first five days. ARDS affects approximately 23% of mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients and has a mortality of nearly 46%. Patients on prolonged mechanical ventilation and ARDS are at risk of impaired physical func...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 20 - Issue 4, 2020 The Seraph® 100: Evidence and Perspectives An overview of the clinical application and future perspective of the Seraph® 100 haemoperfusion in critically ill patients with sepsis. Background Over the last few decades, sepsis has been spreading worldwide to such an extent that it has been declared global health priority by the World Health Organization (Reinhart et al. 2017). Sepsis is an old disease...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 20 - Issue 4, 2020 Biomarkers and Their Impact in ICU Patient Outcomes The laboratory plays a critical role in ensuring optimal outcomes for ICU patients. Several biomarkers are valuable in this context and can help clinicians achieve improved patient outcomes and decreased expenses for healthcare. Improving both in-ICU and post-ICU clinical outcomes often depends on actions taken much sooner in a patient’s pathway durin...

CORRESPONDENCE Renal replacement therapy in acute kidney injury – Authors' reply Stéphane Gaudry, David Hajage, Agnès Dechartres, et al Lancet 2020; 396: 1975-1976 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32673-8 We disagree with Vincenzo Sepe and colleagues' comment about the timing and prescription of renal replacement therapy (RRT). In the randomised controlled trials included in our systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis,1 the protoco...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 20 - Issue 4, 2020 Nutrition in the Post ICU Period: Where is the Evidence? This article summarises the current nutrition evidence in the phase of recovery that occurs following critical illness. Introduction It is plausible that the importance of nutrition may differ across different phases of illness. Reflecting this, the most recently updated clinical nutrition practice guidelines for critical care from the Europea...

CORRESPONDENCE|DECEMBER 19, 2020 Renal replacement therapy in acute kidney injury Vincenzo Sepe, Teresa Rampino, Carmelo Libetta Lancet 2020; 396: 1974 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32399-0 Stéphane Gaudry and colleagues1 found that early renal replacement therapy (RRT) in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury does not affect survival compared with a delayed RRT strategy. A major limitation of their meta-analysis is the clinical discreti...