Journal of the Intensive Care Society最新文献

In 2021 NHS England commissioned regional Adult Critical Care Transfer Services. These services will replace a historically predominant ad hoc approach to adult critical care transfers nationally. It is anticipated that these new formal services will provide a system of robust regional & national governance previously acknowledged to be deficient. As part of this process, it is important that an agreed set of transfer service quality indicators are developed to drive equitable improvement in patient care. We used a Delphi technique to develop a set of key performance indicators through consensus for a recently established London critical care transfer service. We believe this may be the first-time key performance indicators have been developed for adult critical care transfer services using a consensus method. We hope services will consider tracking similar measures to enable benchmarking and drive improvements in patient care.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented clinical and logistical challenges in the delivery of adequate nutrition in the critical care setting. The use of neuromuscular-blocking drugs, presence of maxilla-facial oedema, strict infection control procedures, and patients placed in a prone position complicated feeding tube placement. We audited the outcomes of dietitian-led naso-jejunal tube (NJT) insertions using the IRIS^® (Kangaroo, USA) device, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. NJT placement was successful in 78% of all cases (n = 50), and 87% of COVID-19 cases. Anaesthetic support was only required in COVID-19 patients (53%). NJT placement using IRIS was more difficult but achievable in patients with COVID-19.

The aim of this study was to assess whether high sensitivity troponin (hs-cTnI) is associated with 1 year mortality in critical care (CC). One year mortality data were obtained from NHS Digital for a consecutive cohort of patients admitted to general CC unit (GCCU) and neuroscience CC unit (NCCU) who had hs-cTnI tests performed throughout their CC admission, regardless of whether the test was clinically indicated. Cox proportional hazards were used to estimate the risk of 1-year mortality. A landmark analysis was undertaken to assess whether any relationship at 1 year was driven by mortality within the first 30 days. A total of 1033 consecutive patients were included. At 1 year 254 (24.6%) patients had died. The admission log(10)hs-cTnI concentration in the entire cohort (HR 1.35 (95% CI 1.05-1.75) p = 0.009 with a bootstrap of 1000 samples) was independently associated with 1 year mortality. On landmark analysis the association with 1 year mortality was driven by 30 day mortality. These results indicate that admission hs-cTnI concentration is independently associated with 1 year mortality in CC and this relationship may be driven by differences in mortality at 30 days.

Aim: To describe the protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled trial to determine whether treatment protocols monitoring daily CRP (C-reactive protein) or PCT (procalcitonin) safely allow a reduction in duration of antibiotic therapy in hospitalised adult patients with sepsis.

Design: Multicentre three-arm randomised controlled trial.

Setting: UK NHS hospitals.

Target population: Hospitalised critically ill adults who have been commenced on intravenous antibiotics for sepsis.

Health technology: Three protocols for guiding antibiotic discontinuation will be compared: (a) standard care; (b) standard care + daily CRP monitoring; (c) standard care + daily PCT monitoring. Standard care will be based on routine sepsis management and antibiotic stewardship. Measurement of outcomes and costs. Outcomes will be assessed to 28 days. The primary outcomes are total duration of antibiotics and safety outcome of all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes include: escalation of care/re-admission; infection re-lapse/recurrence; antibiotic dose; length and level of critical care stay and length of hospital stay. Ninety-day all-cause mortality rates will also be collected. An assessment of cost effectiveness will be performed.

Conclusion: In the setting of routine NHS care, if this trial finds that a treatment protocol based on monitoring CRP or PCT safely allows a reduction in duration of antibiotic therapy, and is cost effective, then this has the potential to change clinical practice for critically ill patients with sepsis. Moreover, if a biomarker-guided protocol is not found to be effective, then it will be important to avoid its use in sepsis and prevent ineffective technology becoming widely adopted in clinical practice.

Aortic dissections are associated with significant mortality and morbidity, with rapid treatment paramount. They are caused by a tear in the intimal lining of the aorta that extends into the media of the wall. Blood flow through this tear leads to the formation of a false passage bordered by the inner and outer layers of the media. Their diagnosis is challenging, with most deaths caused by aortic dissection diagnosed at post-mortem. Aortic dissections are classified by location and chronicity, with management strategies depending on the nature of the dissection. The Stanford method splits aortic dissections into type A and B, with type A dissections involving the ascending aorta. De Bakey classifies dissections into I, II or III depending on their origin and involvement and degree of extension. The key to diagnosis is early suspicion, appropriate imaging and rapid initiation of treatment. Treatment focuses on initial resuscitation, transfer (if possible and required) to a suitable specialist centre, strict blood pressure and heart rate control and potentially surgical intervention depending on the type and complexity of the dissection. Effective post-operative care is extremely important, with awareness of potential post-operative complications and a multi-disciplinary rehabilitation approach required. In this review article we will discuss the aetiology and classifications of aortic dissection, their diagnosis and treatment principles relevant to critical care. Critical care clinicians play a key part in all these steps, from diagnosis through to post-operative care, and thus a thorough understanding is vital.