View clinical trials related to Critical Illness.
Filter by:Endotracheal intubation (ETI) is a potentially life-threatening procedure for critically ill patients and major severe complications such as severe hypoxia, cardiovascular collapse and cardiac arrest are common. Despite the high risk of the procedure, different interventions lack high-quality evidence and the investigators hypothesize that a heterogeneous practice among different centres and geographical areas may be found. The investigators designed a large international observational study aiming at prospectively collecting data on the current impact of ETI-related adverse events and current airway management practice in critically ill patients. Investigators will collect data on all consecutive in-hospital (intensive care unit, emergency department and wards) ETIs performed in adult critically patients.
Early enteral nutrition(EEN) is an important treatment for critical ill patients and attenuate systemic inflammation, but the mechanisms are not clear. Thus the investigator conducted this study to observe if EEN affects systemic inflammation though regulation of blood acetylcholine
The effectiveness of current checklists is hampered by lack of acceptance and compliance. Recently, a new type of checklist with dynamic properties has been created to provide more specific checklist items for each individual patient. The proof of concept of this dynamic clinical checklist (DCC; BJA 2017 (DOI: 10.1093/bja/aex129)) was tested in a simulation trial with improved outcomes and high acceptance scores. The purpose of this study is to investigate if the outcomes of this real-life clinical proof of concept study are similar with the outcomes of the simulation trial for the intensive care unit (ICU) ward.
Immobilization and bed rest of patients in intensive care units (ICU) increases their risk for muscle dysfunction and prolonged mechanical ventilation, leading to physical deconditioning and loss of functionality. Active mobilization is a therapeutic strategy that typically involves exercises in which the patient uses his or her own strength and muscular control, is a feasible, safe, and low-cost intervention to improve muscle dysfunction and disability in patients at the ICU. Despite scientific advances, the current description and prescriptions of exercises at the ICU remain incomplete with respect to the control and the description of the variables of training load (volume and intensity), programming, and progression.
The transfer of patients from the intensive care unit (ICU) to a medical or surgical hospital ward is a particularly high risk transfer that may expose patients to complications or adverse events if there are communication breakdowns between sending and receiving medical teams. Current dictation practice often falls short in producing optimal clinical documentation on patients being transferred from the ICU to the ward. The use of an electronic transfer of care tool to standardize communication may improve the quality of information exchanged between ICU and ward medical teams during ICU transfers, compared to dictation. This study will stagger implementation of a new electronic ICU medical transfer of care tool across four adult medical-surgical ICUs in one city. It is anticipated that the electronic ICU transfer tool will positively impact two inter-related goals: (1) improve the completeness and timeliness of clinical documentation on transfer, and (2) reduce the incidence of associated adverse patient clinical outcomes after transfer (e.g., adverse events, ICU readmission).
It is very important to evaluate the degree of gastrointestinal dysfunction in critical ill patients. Thus the investigators conducted transabdominal intestine ultrasonography(US) in critical ill patients to evaluated the degree of gastrointestinal dysfunction under the acute gastrointestinal injury (AGI)
Acute skeletal muscle wasting in ICU patients is associated with functional impairment and with increased risk of death. Of what we know today, physical disability can persist up to 5 years. Adequate nutrition is the basis for an optimal recovery for ICU patients and for prevention of muscle wasting. Today, continuous feeding is still the standard enteral nutrition form for patients in the ICU to limit the incidence of aspiration. A study of Serpa et al. and Georgia et al. compared the continuous feeding versus a bolus nutrition with a feeding time of 30 - 60 minutes every 4 hours. They showed no statistical differences in complications between both groups. ProBoNo is a prospective, randomized, controlled pilot study of critically ill patients with a protein- rich formula to explore the impact of continuous or intermittent bolus nutrition on muscle breakdown in ICU patients. The investigators would like to recruit 68 patients during the first 24 hours after surgical intensive care unit admission. Prior beginning of nutrition administration, and on the 7th day thereafter the investigators will perform a muscle biopsy and an ultrasound from the vastus lateralis muscle in both groups. The primary outcome is the time from 6.00 am of the following day after admission until the patient reaches his daily protein's target quantity. Secondary outcomes include the diameter and densitiy of the hamstrings assessed by ultrasound and histology, the process of gastric residual volume, number of diarrhoea events and laboratory findings like glucose, urea and insulin like growth factor (IGF)-1, all compared between the two time points. Intermittent feeding is not only more natural and could help to limit the muscle wasting in ICU patients, it is also easier to handle for the ICU caring medical team. A trial from Georgia et al. in 2007 compared continuous to intermittent enteral nutrition. They found that the intermittently fed patients reached their nutrition goal faster than those being continuously nourished. This might in part be explained by feeding interruptions in the continuous feeding regimen. Presumably, preoperative holding of tube feedings in the continuous nutrition group most commonly caused interruptions. Thus, independently from prevention of muscle breakdown, a bolus nutrition would be more attractive.
Critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) frequently suffer from circulatory shock or respiratory distress, with high morbidity and mortality up to 40%. After initial fluid resuscitation other complications associated with either treatment or disease may arise. A consequence of treatment might be fluid overload or overfilling. Multiple studies have shown the possible negative effects of - too much - fluid administration, such as venous congestion. Venous congestion entails venous fluid overload, manifested by for example an increased central venous pressure (CVP) or peripheral oedema. This venous congestion may contribute to the occurrence of short-term organ failure by causing a high ''afterload'' in the venous tracts of organs. There is no consensus on how to measure venous congestion. It is important to identify variables that reflect the development of venous congestion in order to investigate whether venous congestion is associated with short-term organ failure. Variables that indicate venous congestion may be obtained with clinical examination and biochemical analyses, supplemented by hemodynamic variables derived from critical care ultrasonography (CCUS) with information about organ perfusion, and both arterial and venous function. The development of short-term organ failure can be assessed by collecting clinical, biochemical and hemodynamic variables at multiple moments. Using repeated measurements is likely to add dynamic information about the diagnostic and prognostic value of these variables. The dynamics of variables, in any direction, over time might improve the diagnostic accuracy and prognostic value of clinical, biochemical and hemodynamic variables that can be collected at the beside of the critically ill patient. Aim and hypotheses This study aims to investigate the association between dynamic variables that reflect venous congestion and the development of short-term organ failure and mortality in the critically ill. The primary objective of this study is to identify the combination of variables at different time points that indicate venous congestion and predict patient outcome. Secondary objectives are to identify a combination of CCUS variables that precede serum creatine rises in patients who develop acute kidney injury (AKI) after an acute ICU admission {diagnostic}; to identify a combination of variables per organ system or subset of populations to predict short-term organ deterioration and 7-day mortality {prognostic}; to identify a combination of variables over 48 hours of ICU admission that predict long-term (90 day) morbidity and mortality {prognostic} and; to validate multiple prognostic risk scores developed for critically ill ICU patients.
Purpose: To evaluate the performance of AKIpredictor, a computer-based algorithm that predicts the development of AKI in the 7 days following ICU admission, by comparing it with similar predictions made by attending physicians. Primary objective: To compare the performances of AKIpredictor and physicians in predicting AKI stage 2 or 3 in the 7 days following ICU admission Secondary objective(s): To investigate the influence of the level of seniority of the physician on the accuracy of the predictions; feasibility of making predictions within a 3 hour window for physicians Trial Design: Monocentric, prospective, longitudinal, non-interventional Endpoints: Primary: comparing the area under the ROC curves of the AKIpredictor and physicians. Secondary: estimation of PPV, NPV, sensitivity and specificity of both predictors at different thresholds; evaluation of alternative negative endpoints (ICU readmission after discharge, death); subgroup analyses. Sample Size: This is a pilot study. Sample size calculations to obtain sufficient power are not feasible due to lack of previous studies. The investigation will be conducted with a preset end time on June 30th. The investigators expect to include approximately 150 patients. Summary of eligibility criteria: All adult patients admitted to UZ Leuven's surgical ICU in the period of the study, with the exclusion of those with end-stage renal disease or AKI already present at the time of admission
Among critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation and catecholamines for shock, nearly 40% to 50% die, and functional recovery is often delayed in survivors. International guidelines include early nutritional support (≤48 h after admission), 20-25 kcal/kg/d at the acute phase, and 1.2-2 g/kg/d protein. These targets are rarely achieved in patients with severe critically illnesses. Recent data challenge the wisdom of providing standard amounts of calories and protein during the acute phase of critical illness. Studies designed to improve enteral nutrition delivery showed no outcome benefits with higher intakes. Instead, adding parenteral nutrition to increase intakes was associated with longer ICU stays and more infectious complications. Studies suggest that higher protein intakes during the acute phase may be associated with greater muscle wasting and ICU-acquired weakness. The optimal calorie and protein supply at the acute phase of severe critical illness remains unknown. NUTRIREA-3 will be the first trial to compare standard calorie and protein feeding complying with guidelines to low-calorie low-protein feeding potentially associated with improved muscle preservation, translating into shorter mechanical ventilation and ICU-stay durations, lower ICU-acquired infection rates, lower mortality, and better long-term clinical outcomes. This multicentre, randomized, controlled, open trial will compare, in patients receiving mechanical ventilation and treated with vasoactive agent for shock two strategies for initiating nutritional support at the acute phase of ICU management (D0-D7): early calorie/protein restriction (6 kcal/kg/d/0.2-0.4 g/kg/d, Low group) or standard calorie/protein targets (25 kcal/kg/d/1.0-1.3 g/kg/d, Standard group). Patients in both groups will receive enteral or parenteral nutrition appropriate for their critical illness. Two alternative primary end-points will be evaluated: all-cause mortality by day 90 and time to discharge alive from the ICU. Second end-points will be calories and proteins delivered, nosocomial infections, gastro-intestinal complications, glucose control, liver dysfunctions, muscle function at the time of readiness for ICU discharge and quality of life at 3 months and 1 year after study inclusion.