Rationale for Enteral Nutrition in Critically Ill Adults In ICU Tue, 22 Jul 2025 Mechanically ventilated adults cannot eat by mouth, making enteral nutrition (EN) a major part of supportive care. Over the past 20 years, research has improved understanding of critical illness phases, body responses, and the role of EN in critically ill adults. A recent narrative review provides an overview of EN by outlining the phases of critical illness, explaining...

IsoCOMFORT: Inhaled Isoflurane for Sedation of Mechanically Ventilated Children  In ICU Tue, 22 Jul 2025 Current sedation for mechanically ventilated paediatric patients typically involves intravenous midazolam combined with opioids, and sometimes ketamine or α2-adrenergic agonists like clonidine or dexmedetomidine. Midazolam is the only drug officially approved for continuous sedation in this setting but is linked to prolonged wake-up times, with...

Artificial Intelligence in Critical Care Medicine In ICU Tue, 22 Jul 2025 Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve diagnosis, prognostication, workflows, and personalised care in critical care, but implementation without a structured, risk-aware approach may lead to harm. Despite ICU pressures from staffing shortages, case complexity, and rising costs, most AI tools remain poorly validated in real-world settings. A new paper calls f...

Invited Commentary  Aging and Health The Potential of Music as a Nonpharmacologic Intervention for the ICU—Sound Medicine Farah Acher Kaiksow, Eduard Eric Vasilevskis JAMA Intern Med Published Online: October 13, 2025 doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.5260 The intensive care unit (ICU) offers lifesaving interventions, but it is also associated with considerable patient pain, anxiety, and high rates of delirium. Delirium in patients in the ICU is a hig...

Quality of Life and Functional Recovery After Intensive Care for Sepsis In Sepsis Tue, 15 Jul 2025 Many ICU survivors of sepsis do not fully regain health or normal function, facing issues in cognition, physical, and mental health (post-sepsis syndrome). Recovery, not just survival, is crucial to patients and families, but studies show increased healthcare use post-ICU, indicating incomplete recovery. Health, per WHO, includes physical, mental, an...

Editorials Gaza: documenting the trauma of war Derek Summerfield BMJ 2025; 390 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2012 (Published 25 September 2025)Cite this as: BMJ 2025;390:r2012 Collated descriptions of injuries illustrate the daunting challenges ahead Little is known about patterns of injury in civilians subjected to high intensity bombardments, such as those that occurred during the US and UK invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and which are now occurring...

Smarter Triage with AI in Emergency Departments  In ICU Sun, 6 Jul 2025 Emergency departments (EDs) are often the first point of contact for patients in acute distress, yet they remain among the most overburdened areas in healthcare. Overcrowding, long wait times and clinician burnout are endemic challenges that compromise patient outcomes and staff morale. With artificial intelligence technologies gaining traction across clinical settings, UMass ...

Editorial  Perioperative Outcomes—The Limits of Blood Pressure–Centered Strategies Matthieu Legrand, François Lamontagne, Romain Pirracchio JAMA Published Online: October 12, 2025 doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.18572 Intraoperative hypotension is very common, affecting 30% to 80% of surgical patients.1-3 Results of observational studies suggest that even brief episodes of intraoperative hypotension are associated with an increased risk of postoperative complic...

Factors Leading to CT Misinterpretation in the ED  In ICU Sat, 12 Jul 2025 Computed tomography (CT) has become a cornerstone of emergency department (ED) diagnostics due to its high sensitivity and rapid acquisition of detailed internal images. Emergency physicians (EPs) often initiate CT scans to guide urgent decisions, particularly in trauma and acute medical conditions. However, in settings where real-time radiologist interpretation is unavaila...

Invited Commentary  Dexmedetomidine Infusion for Rib Fractures—Still in Search of the Right Indication? Joshua B. Brown JAMA Surg 2025;160;(10):1057. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2025.3235 Dexmedetomidine is an α-2 agonist that garnered significant attention in recent years. Often used for sedation in the intensive care unit (ICU), it has advantages of lighter sedation with less respiratory depression compared with other agents.1 When studied in critically ill pa...