Original Investigation  November 6, 2023 Overnight Stay in the Emergency Department and Mortality in Older Patients Melanie Roussel, Dorian Teissandier, Youri Yordanov, et al JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183(12):1378-1385. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.5961 Key Points Question  Is spending a night in the emergency department (ED) associated with increased in-hospital mortality and morbidity among older patients? Findings  This Frenc...

Research Christmas 2023: Marginal Gains Projecting complete redaction of clinical trial protocols (RAPTURE): redacted cross sectional study Nir Balaban, Ghulam Rehman Mohyuddin, Adi Kashi, et al BMJ 2023; 383 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-077329 (Published 14 December 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;383:e077329 Abstract Objectives To characterise redactions in clinical trials and estimate a time when all protocols are fully removed (RAPTURE). ...

Original Investigation  Caring for the Critically Ill Patient December 1, 2023 Prone Positioning During Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Patients With Severe ARDS: The PRONECMO Randomized Clinical Trial Matthieu Schmidt, David Hajage, Guillaume Lebreton, et al JAMA. Published online December 1, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.24491 Key Points Question  Prone positioning may improve the outcome of patients with severe acute r...

Using PMX-HA in Patients With Sepsis Endotoxin can trigger immune responses and organ failure in sepsis patients. Polymyxin B hemadsorption (PMX-HA) is an extracorporeal blood purification technique to remove circulating endotoxin and prevent organ failure. While some studies have suggested that PMX-HA improves outcomes in sepsis patients, conflicting results have been observed in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The EUPHRATES trial, which enrolled septic sh...

Research Christmas 2023: Marginal Gains Effect of chair placement on physicians’ behavior and patients’ satisfaction: randomized deception trial Ruchita Iyer, Do Park, Jenny Kim, et al BMJ 2023; 383 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-076309 (Published 15 December 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;383:e076309 Abstract Objective To evaluate the effect of chair placement on length of time physicians sit during a bedside consultation and patients’ satisf...

Research Christmas 2023: Food and Drink Efficacy of cola ingestion for oesophageal food bolus impaction: open label, multicentre, randomised controlled trial E G Tiebie, E P Baerends, T Boeije, et al BMJ 2023; 383 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-077294 (Published 11 December 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;383:e077294 Abstract Objective To determine the efficacy and safety of cola in resolving complete oesophageal food bolus impaction. Design...

Feature Covid-19 Is convalescent plasma still useful as a covid treatment? Katharine Lang BMJ 2023; 383 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2185 (Published 08 November 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;383:p2185 Enthusiasm for one of the earliest promising treatments for covid-19 has waned. Katharine Lang finds that convalescent plasma for covid may still have a place, particularly in immunocompromised people What is convalescent plasma? It’s a fo...

Human-Centred Visualisation Technologies for Patient Monitoring Information technology has become integral to perioperative and intensive care medicine, revolutionising patient care. Patient monitoring, crucial for ensuring safe anaesthesia practices and optimising patient ventilation, haemodynamics, and metabolism in critical care, is now widely recognised as a standard practice. Adopting monitoring technologies has greatly improved patient outcomes in these medic...

Original Investigation  November 17, 2023 Higher-Dose Fluvoxamine and Time to Sustained Recovery in Outpatients With COVID-19: The ACTIV-6 Randomized Clinical Trial Thomas G. Stewart, Paulina A. Rebolledo, Ahmad Mourad, et al JAMA. Published online November 17, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.23363 Key Points Question  Does 100 mg of fluvoxamine twice daily for 13 days, compared with placebo, shorten symptom duration among outpatient...

EDITORIAL| VOLUME 164, ISSUE 4, P816-817, OCTOBER 2023 The Emulated Targeted Trial: A Causal, But Never Casual, Surrogate for Randomized Clinical Trials Pedro D. Wendel-Garcia, Lieuwe D.J. Bos Chest 2023; 164: 816-817 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2023.06.016 Randomization properly carried out […] relieves the experimenter from the anxiety of considering and estimating the magnitude of the innumerable causes by which his data may be disturbed.R. A. ...