The Mayo Clinic reviewed its series using VA ECMO for postcardiotomy support in patients older than the age of 70 years. Not surprisingly, only a quarter of patients were able to be discharged alive.
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Critical Care
April 19, 2015
April 9, 2015
This article offers an overview of the evolution of thoracic drainage and development of the modern chest tube from ancient Greece to the present time.
April 9, 2015
This concensus statement reviews the unique physiology, insertion techniques, and clinical indications for use of percutaneous mechanical circulatory support devices. As the options for management of different etiologies of heart failure in adult and pediatric populations expand, understanding the advantages of specific devices is vital.
April 8, 2015
This thought provoking article by Drew et al., utilized state-of-the art monitoring technology to document the problem of "alarm fatigue" by recording an astounding number of alarm events; 2,558,760 unique alarms were triggered for 461 patients over a 31-day period.
April 8, 2015
The authors describe a simplified method of providing regional citrate anticoagulation for Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) to patients.
April 4, 2015
This multicenter randomized trial examined restrictive versus liberal threshold in red-cell transfusion in patients after cardiac surgery. The results were provocative, with more deaths in the restrictiv group compared to the liberal transfusion group. Posoperative complications were also slightly higher in the restrictive group.
March 30, 2015
The authors describe a kinetic modeling tool to safely regulate the osmotic changes that can occur when treating severe metabolic alkalosis and concurent hypernatremia. The authors discuss disequilibrium syndrome and brain edema, a potential occurence when intermittant dialisis is used versus a longer, slower, and potentially more easily regulable t
March 17, 2015
The authors sought to validate the definition of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), which requires the presence of 2 or more clinical criteria, and determined whether meeting the definition was associated with an increased risk of death. Over 109,000 ICU patients in Australia and New Zealand who had infection and organ failure were
March 14, 2015
This is a very provocative British study that examined whether a more liberal (Hgb < 9 g/dL) versus a more restrictive (Hgb < 7.5 g/dL) transfusion threshold after cardiac surgery is associated with higher morbidity and costs.
March 2, 2015
The frequency of blood draws after cardiac surgery is rarely tracked. This study tracked such activity for a 6-month period at the Cleveland Clinic. In over 1,800 pts, the average number of tests requiring blood was 115. Total average blood volume removed was 454 ml. The average for complex procedures was 653 ml. This system is ripe for process