View clinical trials related to Critical Illness.
Filter by:To evaluate the performance of volume responsiveness in predicting the outcome of mechanical ventilation weaning in critically ill patients.
Critical illness polyneuropathy and/or myopathy (CIPNM) is a severe complication of critical illness. Retrospective data suggest that early application of IgM-enriched intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) may prevent or mitigate CIPNM. Therefore, the primary objective was to assess the effect of early IgM-enriched IVIG versus placebo to mitigate CIPNM in a prospective setting.
Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is difficult to diagnose and remains a cause of high morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients in the ICU. Accepted diagnostic protocols for haemato-oncological patients are not applicable for critically ill patients in ICUs. Definitive discrimination between aspergillic colonisation and IPA often depends on the clinical experience of the treating physician, evaluating clinical signs, co-morbidities, and course of the disease. Life saving treatment with the first line antimycotic Voriconazol (Vfend®) can only be initiated after diagnosis of IPA. In this prospective clinical trial the investigators aim to structure, optimize and fast track the diagnostic pathway of IPA in critically ill patients treated in our ICU-department.
Hypothesis 1: Blood alcohol concentration will be <25 mg/100ml (equivalent to a blood alcohol concentration of <0.025%) after a 1 hour urinary catheter ethanol lock. Hypothesis 2: Daily urinary catheter ethanol locks will not result in increased hematuria or increased urinary white cells.
Measure the lung strain in different tidal volume in ADRS patients to find the relationship between tidal volume and lung strain and find the most suitable tidal volume for each patient.
Record the renal resistive index and hemodynamic parameters ( record the cardiac output and stroke volume if the patient's next to kin agree to undertake a PiCCO monitoring ) before and after resuscitation for severe sepsis or septic shock patients, to determine whether the changes of resistive index or hemodynamic parameters, especially the cardiac output can be a better parameter to predict AKI
One of the essential treatments for assisting patients in their recovery from illness is the provision of nutrition in a liquid form which is delivered into the stomach or as a fluid into the vein. Until recently the benefits of nutrition were undervalued in the critically ill, however, it has now become clear that targeted nutrition can positively affect a person's outcome. This is particularly important for patients who are significantly unwell and require increased amounts of nutrition to support recovery. Inadequate nutrition therapy leads them to rapidly lose weight, predominantly in the form of muscle loss which greatly contributes to their poor recovery. Whilst nutrition is essential for recovery, there are several issues with the delivery of nutrition via the stomach (the most commonly used method of delivering nutrition in the critically ill). For many reasons, patients are unable to tolerate large quantities of nutrition via the stomach and in addition to this there are hospital or procedural reasons for nutrition being turned off for lengthy periods of time. As such, this results in patients being delivered only about half of the nutrition that is planned. One potential way to overcome this is to deliver nutrition via the vein, whilst nutrition into the stomach continues, with the aim to meet the energy gap that is lost by inadequate nutrition via the stomach. In this study of 100 patients, we will deliver combined nutrition via the vein and stomach in 50 patients and the other 50 patients will receive nutrition as per normal practice. We will measure important outcomes for these patients to determine if this allows us to meet significantly more of their nutrition needs. This study will also help us determine how best to design a larger study of this strategy.
One in five deaths in the U.S. occurs in or shortly after discharge from an intensive care unit (ICU), typically following decisions made by surrogate decision makers to forego life prolonging treatment. A large body of empirical research has identified deficiencies in care processes that contribute to three important problems: 1) family members often experience poor quality communication with ICU clinicians, leading to lasting psychological distress associated with the ICU experience; 2) patients near the end of life frequently receive invasive, expensive treatment that is inconsistent with their values and preferences, and 3) end-of-life care is a major contributor to health care costs.[8, 9] Although advance care planning can prevent some unwanted treatment, many patients wish for a trial of intensive treatment when the prognosis is uncertain, and therefore it seems likely that the need for interventions to improve "in-the-moment" decisions by surrogates will persist.[10, 11] In a pilot project, the investigators developed the PARTNER intervention (PAiring Re-engineered ICU Teams with Nurse-driven Emotional Support and Relationship-building), an interdisciplinary intervention that 1) gives new responsibilities and advanced communication skills training to existing ICU staff (local nurse leaders and social work members of the ICU team); 2) changes care "defaults" to ensure frequent clinician-family meetings; and 3) adds protocolized, nurse-administered coaching and emotional support of surrogates before and during clinician-family meetings. The objective of this proposal is to conduct a stepped wedge randomized controlled trial testing the PARTNER intervention in 5 ICUs among 1000 patients with advanced critical illness and their surrogates.
Different studies suggest that early enteral nutrition (EEN) has benefits in reducing infectious complications, there is no data that addresses whether delayed enteral nutrition (EN) is detrimental and if it may have effects on inflammatory responses and immune function.
An early and efficient enteral nutritional support could improve the clinical outcomes of brain injured critically ill patients. Gastrointestinal feeding intolerance defined as an increased gastric residual volume frequently occurs in these patients. Previous experimental studies have suggested that a small-peptide enteral feeding formula could promote the gastric emptying compared to a whole-protein formula. An improved gastrointestinal tolerance of enteral nutrition should allow a rapid increase in the daily caloric intake and enhance nutritional support of brain injured critically ill patients.