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Critical Care

December 3, 2014
Program directors from 6 distinctly different training centers assessed educational costs for CT resident training.  Before formal accounting information was explored, the PDs estimated the annual cost per resident to be $250,000.  The actual costs per year per resident ranged from $330,000 to $667,000, with a mean of $483,000.  Faculty teaching cost
December 1, 2014
This is an excellent article on the feasibility of offering Veno Arterial ECMO in outlying community hospitals for Refractory Cardiogenic Shock (RCS).  The Authors review a four year time period and describe assessing 104 patients of whom 87 were deemed eligible for V-A ECMO therapy.
November 27, 2014
Abrams and colleagues provide a comprehensive review of the topic of recirculation during VV ECMO.  Specifically, the authors discuss the factors contributing to recirculation, how to calculate the extent of recirculation, and what interventions can be applied to correct the issue.
November 25, 2014
In a retrospective review of 45 cases where patients were placed on VV ECMO, investigators from Seoul performed a multivariate analysis of pre-ECMO risk factors  that might be predictive of  an unsuccessful ECMO wean.  Notably, successful weaning from ECMO was only 46%, and overall survival was only 18%.
November 10, 2014
The authors explored a sample of Medicare patients who survived sepsis during hospitalization to assess the impact of afib developing during sepsis on long-term outcomes.  Of nearly 139,000 sepsis survivors, 7% had new onset afib during sepsis.  Of those pts, 55% were found to have afib after hospitlization.  New onset afib during sepsis was associat
October 9, 2014
A well done video describing radial artery line placement aided by US.
October 9, 2014
This randomized trial investigated two different thresholds for triggering transfusion in patients with septic shock: 9 g/dL or 7 g/dL.  The lower threshold group received a median of 1 unit of blood compared to 4 in the higher threshold group.  90 day mortality rates and other morbidity were similar between the groups.  
October 8, 2014
The Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI) was compared to more standard methods of categorizing complications for their utility in assessing outcomes after randomized surgical trials.  The CCI outperformed standard methods in 2 of 3 published randomized trials (pancreatic and esophageal surgery), demonstrating significant differences in outcomes whe
September 29, 2014
This randomized double-blind multicenter study involving 667 pts evaluated the utility of IV fenoldopam in reducing the rate of renal replacement therapy for patients undergoing cardiac surgery who exhibit postoperative acute kidney injury.  Fenoldopam did not importantly reduce the need for renal replacement therapy or 30 day mortality.  Its use was
August 25, 2014
This interesting overview points out the negative effects of adrenaline on outcomes in a number of observational and randomized studies of patients experiencing cardiac arrest.  The author recommends using Vasopressin after the first dose of adrenaline during resuscitation from cardiac arrest. 

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