View clinical trials related to Critical Illness.
Filter by:Strong evidence suggests that human albumin solutions should not be used for fluid resuscitation except among patients undergoing therapeutic plasmapheresis and select patients with complications of liver cirrhosis (i.e. spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, or large volume ascitic fluid removal). Previous work by the investigators reported albumin use outside these circumstances as a quality improvement opportunity in Alberta ICUs. In 2017, the investigators began a pilot initiative to reduce albumin overuse in 6 ICUs in Alberta. The intervention was developed according to the Theoretical Domains Framework, and consisted of establishing a clinical champion, educating clinicians, changing the process for albumin ordering (albumin-specific order sheet), and providing quarterly audit/feedback data to clinicians on albumin utilization. During the intervention, there was a 41% relative reduction in albumin utilization. However, follow-up data identified problems with sustainability. These sustainability challenges combined with data suggesting high albumin use in other ICUs throughout Alberta have led the current project to build on the pilot initiative to reduce albumin overuse within all adult ICUs in Alberta. The proposed quality improvement intervention will be implemented in 16 adult ICUs using a registry-based, stepped-wedge implementation design that will lean heavily on existing Provincial healthcare infrastructure. The intervention was developed using the Theoretical Domains Framework, and tailored to the unique features of each participating ICU. It will be implemented at the level of ICU. Clusters of 2 ICUs will be assigned to receive the intervention every month such that all ICUs in Alberta will receive the intervention by the end of the implementation period. To evaluate the quality improvement initiative, eCritical will serve as a 'registry' and will be used to capture all clinical and outcome data. The primary outcome will be the proportion of ICU admissions without an evidence-based indication for albumin, prescribed at least 1 unit of albumin (any concentration) during admission to ICU. 'Evidence-based indication' will be operationally defined as receipt of therapeutic plasmapheresis OR having a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and being in receipt of a paracentesis. This latter criterion enables identification of patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis or large volume ascitic fluid removal.
Treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU) for more than five days often leads to chronic physical, cognitive and psychological complaints, such as post-traumatic stress disorders, muscle weakness, depression, anxiety and adjustment disorders. This is referred to as Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS). So far, there have been only a few studies investigating this syndrome. The aim of this pilot study is to test the effectiveness and feasibility of an ICU follow-up clinic, which our study team developed in a participatory process involving patients, caregivers, health care providers and researcher. For this purpose, the participants will be randomly assigned to a group with treatment in this follow-up clinic or to a group with usual care. Both groups will then be compared.
Overutilization of intensive care unit (ICU) treatments among patients with advanced medical illnesses and poor prognosis places them at risk for prolonged suffering with minimal anticipated benefit. Improving communication and shared decision-making between providers and patients/family members represents an opportunity to reduce potentially non-beneficial treatments. Time limited trials (TLTs) are agreements between clinicians and patients/surrogate decision-makers to use medical therapies over a defined period of time to observe if patients improve or deteriorate according to agreed-upon clinical outcomes. The objective of this project is to examine whether a quality improvement intervention that uses protocoled time limited trials as the default ICU communication/care planning strategy for patients with advanced medical illnesses will decrease the duration and intensity of non-beneficial ICU treatments without changing hospital mortality.
This is a single-center, multi-ICU prospective observational trial evaluating current nutritional practice and its influence of the physical function of critically ill patients.
When advanced disease progresses, there comes a time when an oncologists must explain to their patients that they only have months left to live. During these discussions the oncologist attempts to explain to the patient their prognoses and what it means for them going forward. However our prior studies shown that even when patients only have months left to live, most do not understand that their cancer is incurable and that it is late/end-stage. Dying cancer patients who fully understand their prognosis are able to make more informed decisions and are therefore more likely to engage in advanced care planning, and receive care what in consistent with their values and preferences. They are also in a better position to avoid burdensome, non-beneficial care. The investigator developed Oncolo-GIST in order to help increase the number of patients who fully understand their prognosis and its implications. Oncolo-GIST is an intervention aimed at enhancing clinicians' communication with patients by teaching them to relay information both sensitively and using simple terminology. The Oncolo-GIST training will provide instruction in areas such as how to introduce the topic of prognosis (describe scan results as "worse"), how to phrase the prognosis itself ("likely months, not years"), how to explain expected treatment outcomes (e.g., "not expected to be cured by treatment") and how to describe expected treatments impact on quality of life - that is, whether the anticancer treatment is likely to make them feel overall better or worse. The training materials consist of a manual and a set of videos that act out situations described in the manual. The second phase of this study will be a randomized controlled trial. The investigator will recruit (n=50) adults with metastatic GI or lung cancers with scan results that reveal progression (worsened disease) on an initial systemic treatment; that is, patients whose life-expectancy can reliably be estimated to be months, not years. Medical oncologists (n=4) who care for these patients will also be consented for study participation and half (n=2) will be randomized to receive the Oncolo-GIST training. Patients will be assessed by trained research staff in the week prior to a scheduled meeting with their oncologist to discuss the scan results. This will provide patients' baseline levels of prognostic understanding and enable the investigator to determine how the intervention relates to pre-post scan visit changes in prognostic understanding. Patients will be assessed post-scan within a week of that progressive scan visit. The assessment battery that will be administered at these time-points will measure the patient's degree of prognostic understanding, the primary outcome of the study. Other outcomes that will be measured by the assessment battery include the patients quality of life, therapeutic alliances of the patient, whether or not a DNR was ordered, the care received by the patient, whether or not the patient preferred greater quality of longer quantity of life, and whether or not the patients received "value-consistent" care.
This is a prospective randomized controlled trial. 180 patients with critical illness will be included and randomly divided into two groups. In the control group, patients will be fed with basic energy; and in the experiment group, the patients will be given extra protein intake except the basic energy intake. The intervention duration will last 6 days. The primary outcomes of this study are urea nitrogen of 24h and prealbumin(PA). And other outcomes include nutritional status, safety indicators and clinical indicators.
The present randomized crossover clinical trial aims to evaluate the influence of different body postures on pulmonary aeration among mechanically ventilated critically ill patients. Patients admitted to the intensive care unit receiving invasive mechanical ventilation >24 hours, and without contraindications to mobilization, will be randomly assigned to one of two sequences of interventions at a single day: arm 1: bedside sitting posture followed by orthostatic board at 45º and 60º; arm 2: orthostatic board at 45º, 60º and 80º followed by bedside sitting posture. Each postural protocol (bedside sitting posture protocol or orthostatic board posture protocol) will last 30 minutes. A washout window period between 1,5h and 2,5h will be applied between the two postural interventions. The primary outcome is the lung aeration assessed using the Lung Ultrasound Score (LUS) performed by trained evaluators at the end of postural protocol. Secondary outcomes include ventilatory mechanics (static compliance, airway resistance and respiratory work), PaO2/FiO2 ratio, Level of consciousness according to the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS), and adverse events (hypertension, hypotension, tachicardia, bradycardia, tachypnea, bradypnea, decreased level of consciousness, patient distress, fall to knees, invasive device traction or loss, filter hemodialysis clotting or disruption).
Survivors of critical illness might suffer from ongoing physical, cognitive and emotional impairments after being discharged home. Furthermore, several studies have shown that these patients might have a need for ongoing support. However, up until now, it is not known what the optimal follow-up programme for survivor of critical illness after discharge home should look like or which exact patient population would benefit the most. Due to these reasons, it is important to further investigate, how these patients can be optimally supported to recover from their critical illness. The primary aim of this study is to assess, whether a physiotherapy-led follow-up programme is feasible in adult survivors of critical illness after discharge home in the county hospital of Winterthur. Furthermore, the investigators evaluate the influence of this physiotherapy-led follow-up programme on health related quality of life, exercise capacity, general muscle strength, inspiratory muscle strength, anxiety and depression. All of the anticipated 20 patients will partake in the follow-up programme, which will consist out of a nine weeks exercise programme and four education sessions. During the exercise programme, the patients will exercise twice per week under supervision and once by themselves. The supervised exercise sessions will consist out of a combination of a cardiopulmonary and strength training and the unsupervised session will be a physical activity, which the participants like doing. Furthermore, they will participate in education sessions, where they learn things about the intensive care unit, the post-intensive care syndrome, relaxation techniques and how to carry on with exercising. The whole study will last about ten months and forms a part of a master thesis.
Intravascular volume assesment is important for the management of the patients in the intensive care unit. Respiratory variation ratio of the inferior vena cava (IVC) can be determined by ultrasonography (USG) and is a useful tool for hemodynamic evaluation of the patient. Aim of this study is to search for correlation between respiratory variation ratios of the internal jugular vein (IJV) and the IVC before and after passive leg raise. Another aim of this study is to search for variability between ultrasonographic measurements of different doctors.
This study evaluates the effect of a transcutaneous electrical stimulation in critically ill patients compared to a sham electrical stimulation to decrease the incidence of diaphragm dysfunction before mechanical ventilation weaning.