Optimised Prediction of All-Cause Mortality of ICU Patients Outcomes research on ICU patients requires accurate measures of comorbidity to predict mortality. The Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS3) is widely used and provides some information on comorbidity. The Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) uses general comorbidity measures and may not be sufficiently discriminative. These risk scores use the presence of comorbidity as binary variables but disregard quant...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 22 - Issue 4, 2022 Antibiotic Stewardship in Critical and Emergency Care An overview of antimicrobial stewardship in critical care units and emergency departments, highlighting aspects to reduce multidrug resistance focusing on antibiotic optimisation in respiratory infections and sepsis. Introduction Infections caused by resistant bacteria are associated with higher treatment costs and increased morbidity and mortali...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 22 - Issue 4, 2022 Pancreatic Stone Protein Biomarker for Sepsis, Antimicrobial Resistance and Nosocomial Infections The problem of antimicrobial resistance and the use of a clinical decision score and point-of-care testing biomarkers, such as CRP and PSP, to help solve this problem.  Introduction  Infectious diseases are a public health issue around the world, with bacterial, viral, parasitic, or fungal-rel...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 22 - Issue 4, 2022 Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Principles to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic principles play a central role in antimicrobial dose-optimisation to combat antimicrobial resistance. In the future, research focused on the integration of preclinical and clinical data is paramount. Antimicrobial Resistance in the ICU The use of antimicrobial drugs in the hospital is ve...

Quality of Life, Costs, Economic Evaluation in ECMO Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) refers to mechanical support in patients for heart or lung function during cardiopulmonary failure. ECMO is used when conventional treatments have failed. As per the international guideline of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO), ECMO should be considered when the estimated mortality risk is about 50% and is mostly indicated when the mortality risk approac...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 22 - Issue 4, 2022 Improving Clinical Outcomes With Early Enteral Nutrition An overview of the benefits of early enteral nutrition, clinical evidence and recommendations, reasons for delayed enteral feeding in critically ill patients and optimal solutions. Early enteral nutrition is proven to improve clinical outcomes and reduce acute care costs. Nutrition clinicians support the belief that enteral nutrition is preferabl...

Are Patient Satisfaction Tools Causing Harm to Patients and Physicians? It is routine practice to evaluate patient satisfaction through surveys. Physicians also regularly monitor their aggregate satisfaction scores, and public payors reward those with strong results. These tools and measures are based on the premise that patient satisfaction is an integral element of care, and improving patient experience is an important quality dimension for physicians and healthc...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 22 - Issue 4, 2022 Short Acting Beta-Blockers in Critically Ill Patients With Heart Failure An overview of the clinical evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of landiolol for the treatment of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter with heart failure and effective heart rate control during arrhythmias. Supraventricular arrhythmias (SVTs) are common in post-operative and cardiac ICUs. SVTs increase the risk of death as w...

Editorials Healthy lifestyles for dementia prevention Séverine Sabia, Archana Singh-Manoux BMJ 2023; 380 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p117 (Published 25 January 2023)Cite this as: BMJ 2023;380:p117 An increasingly urgent public health priority Ageing is accompanied by a decline in several measures of cognitive function, such as memory, reasoning, and psychomotor speed. Differences in the rate of change in cognitive function can be substantial between in...

Sex Differences in Treatment of ICU Patients Sex imbalance in the ICU has been consistently reported. Worldwide, fewer women are admitted to the ICU than men. Several studies have reported systematic differences in the treatment men and women receive in ICUs. Studies from Europe, North America, and Asia all show women are less likely to receive invasive mechanical ventilation than men. Studies also show that women have lower mean Therapeutic Intervention Scoring Sy...