View clinical trials related to Intensive Care.
Filter by:At antibiotic stewardship of the University Hospital of Schleswig-Holsten it was noticed that there are much less studies measuring drug levels in severe burned patients than are required. Especially, severe burned patient developing a capillary leak might show lower drug levels than patients without a capillary leak. To compare drug levels of beta-lactam antibiotics, it is the aim of this study to measure pharmacokinetics of Piperacillin/Tazobactam in ICU patients with and without severe burns.
The delayed administration of an adequate antimicrobial therapy is a strong predictor of impaired outcome in patients with bacterial sepsis. Therefore, the current Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines (2016) recommend that administration of intravenous antimicrobials be initiated within one hour following the recognition of sepsis or septic shock. The quick Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score is a new bedside tool which has been recently proposed by the Third International Sepsis Consensus Definitions Task Force (Sepsis-3) to identify patients with suspected infection who are at greater risk for a poor outcome outside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It uses three criteria, assigning one point for low systolic blood pressure (SBP ≤100 mmHg), high respiratory rate (≥22 breaths per min) and altered mentation (Glasgow coma scale <15). The score ranges from 0 to 3 points. A qSOFA value ≥2 points is associated with a greater risk of death or prolonged ICU stay, these outcomes being more common in infected patients who may be septic than in those with uncomplicated infection. The definite goal of qSOFA is to hasten the management and thus improve the outcome of patients at risk of sepsis or septic shock. Many patients admitted to the hospital for bacterial sepsis or septic shock are initially managed in the Emergency Department (ED). This study aims at investigating whether the routine calculation of qSOFA at patient triage may hasten the initiation of antimicrobial therapy in patients admitted to the ED with suspected or proven bacterial infection, especially in those with subsequent criteria for sepsis or septic shock (Sepsis-3 definition).
Little is known about bronchoalveolar lavages performed for cytological assessment during bronchial fibroscopy in critically ill patients. Frequency of use, indications, actual contribution to diagnosis and therapeutic decision, and complications have not been extensively assessed. The primary objective of this multi center, prospective, observational study is to describe the frequency of use of bronchoalveolar lavages for cytological assessement in critically ill patients, identify their indications, assess their contribution to diagnosis and therapeutic decisions, and estimate the frequency of induced respiratory events.
Postoperative delirium may result in many adverse complications. At present little is known about postoperative delirium in patients after crniotomy because they may manifest similar symptoms to definitely delirium for some structural brain disease. Objective of this study is to find out incidence and risk factors of postoperative delirium in patients after elective craniotomy and also the relationship of postoperative delirium with clinical outcome.
The World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (AMMI) Canada, and Health Canada have all declared antimicrobial resistance a global threat to health, based on rapidly increasing resistance rates and declining new drug development. Up to 30-50% of antibiotic use is inappropriate, and excessive durations of treatment are the greatest contributor to inappropriate use. Shorter duration treatment (≤7 days) has been shown in meta-analyses to be as effective as longer antibiotic treatment for a range of mild to moderate infections. A landmark trial in critically ill patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia showed that mortality and relapse rates were non-inferior in patients who received 8 vs 15 days of treatment. Similar adequately powered randomized trial evidence is lacking for the treatment of patients with bloodstream infections caused by a wide spectrum of organisms.
The aim of this before-after study was to assess the impact of a clinical pharmacy bundle of care activities on patient outcomes (length of hospital stay as a primary endpoint) and cost expenditure in two French ICUs.
Many patients who are admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) experience muscle weakness. This muscle weakness occurs whilst patients are unconscious, immobile in bed and on a breathing machine (ventilator). It can develop very quickly, as soon as they become unwell. The investigators know that this weakness can make it harder for patients to regain their normal level of functional ability, such as standing and walking independently. Physical rehabilitation, delivered by physiotherapists, is important for patients as they recover from their critical illness to help them regain strength and to practice the ability to perform physical activities. These activities include sitting on the edge of the bed, standing, stepping on the spot and walking. However it is difficult to know how hard it is for patients who are recovering from critical illness to perform these types of activities - in other words, how much energy is required. Some patients may find certain activities harder or easier than others. By knowing the energy requirements of patients whilst they take part in different physical rehabilitation activities, physiotherapists may be able to be more accurate with prescribing exercises and designing rehabilitation sessions for patients to practice achieving those activities. In this study, the investigators will measure the energy requirements of the patients when they take part in physiotherapy-led physical rehabilitation they will have during their admission. To do this, the investigators will use a different ventilator to the one normally used to help their breathing. This ventilator works in exactly the same way, but has an extra component built into it to measure energy requirements. After the rehabilitation session, the patient will return to using their normal ventilator.
No clear recommendation exists for the level of oxygenation of intensive care patients. In Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), pulsed oxymetry (SpO2) have to be kept between 88 and 95 percent and oxygen alveolar pressure between 55 and 80 mmHg (PaO2). These recommendations are common but do not lie on high scientific knowledge and level of proof. In the major studies of these fifteen last years that changed ARDS management, PaO2 was kept around 85 and 90 mmHg despite current recommendations of 55 to 80 mmHg of PaO2. Many recent review and cohort studies pointed the risk of excessive oxygenation especially following cardiac arrest, stroke or traumatic brain injury. However, these data come in majority from cohort or database study without strong definition of hyperoxia. Data coming from prospective studies are scarce and tend to show better outcome of patients with lower objectives of oxygenation in ICU. High oxygen (O2) level may be deleterious especially on inflammatory lungs. It could enhance injuries due to mechanical ventilation. O2 could be responsable of " hyperoxia induced lung injury ". The investigators showed in a precedent study that comparing a restrictive oxygenation versus a liberal oxygenation was feasable and do not expose patients to major adverse events. More, mortality at 60 days has tendency to be lower. The investigators therefore ask if a lower objectives of PaO2 in comparison with the level usually seen in last studies on ARDS could improve ARDS patients outcome. The aim of this study is to show that a restrictive oxygenation in comparison with a liberal oxygenation strategy in patients with ARDS would lower mortality at 28 days.
This study is part of a project intended to develop guidelines to optimise the dosing of fentanyl in intensive care patients. This study will focus on determining: - Whether the pharmacokinetics of fentanyl change during the ICU stay. - To what extent / the degree of change in fentanyl pharmacokinetics in ICU patients. - Which factors (e.g. physiological variables) that cause such a change. - Based on simulations, determine context-sensitive half-times of fentanyl in ICU patients.
Pain is one of the major symptoms in palliative care units and often is very difficult to treat, being considered as a refractory pain. There are different causes of refractory pain: pain due to bed sores and ulcer bandages, carcinological or ischemic wounds or injuries, pain due to patients' reduced mobility, pain due to traumatological injuries, pain associated with a long-term bed confinement, etc. The investigators propose a prospective study to estimate the effect and the tolerance to a subcutaneous bolus of ketamine administered for the treatment of refractory pain due to the care of bedsores, ulcers and vascular wounds in patients hospitalized in palliative care units.