Effect of 0.9% Saline or Plasma-Lyte 148 as Crystalloid Fluid Therapy in the Intensive Care Unit on Blood Product Use and Postoperative Bleeding After Cardiac Surgery.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of Plasma-Lyte 148 (PL-148) compared with 0.9% saline (saline) on blood product use and postoperative bleeding in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) following cardiac surgery.

Design: A post hoc subgroup analysis conducted within a multicenter, double-blind, cluster-randomized, double-crossover study (study 1) and a prospective, single-center nested-cohort study (study 2).

A protocol for the 0.9% saline versus Plasma-Lyte 148 for intensive care fluid therapy (SPLIT) study.

Background: 0.9% saline is the most commonly used intravenous (IV) fluid in the world. However, recent data raise the possibility that, compared with buffered crystalloid fluids such as Plasma-Lyte 148, the administration of 0.

A retrospective cohort study of the effect of medical emergency teams on documentation of advance care directives.

Objective: To describe the longitudinal changes in documentation of advance care directives (ACDs), including limitation of medical therapy (LMT) and not-for-resuscitation (NFR) directives among patients reviewed by a medical emergency team (MET).

Design And Setting: Single-centre, retrospective cohort study at a tertiary teaching hospital in Wellington, New Zealand, from 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2010.

Participants: Adult surgical and medical inpatients attended by the hospital's MET, which attends medical emergency calls and cardiac arrest calls.

Withdrawal of active treatment in intensive care: what is stopped - comparison between belief and practice.

Objective: To assess the methods of withdrawal of active treatment in intensive care patients and to compare surveyed practice with the beliefs of medical and nursing staff.

Study Design: Staff beliefs were assessed prospectively using an anonymous questionnaire. Withdrawal methods were assessed retrospectively by a review of the medical records of 40 consecutive patients who had treatment withdrawn.

Intensive care in an unusual setting: management of pneumonia in a chimpanzee.

We report a case in which intensive care doctors and nurses became involved in the care of a young chimpanzee who required ventilation for pneumonia at Wellington Zoo, New Zealand. This required staff to work outside the usual protected environment of a hospital intensive care unit. The chimpanzee, Bahati, was ventilated for 3 days, replicating intensive care practice, but died.