Pharmacokinetics of an extended 4-hour infusion of piperacillin-tazobactam in critically ill patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy.

Study Objective: To evaluate the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of piperacillin-tazobactam administered as a 4-hour infusion in critically ill patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT).

Design: Prospective, observational, pharmacokinetic study.

Setting: Intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in Montréal, Canada.

Alcohol, nicotine, and iatrogenic withdrawals in the ICU.

Objectives: The neurophysiology, risk factors, and screening tools associated with alcohol withdrawal syndrome in the ICU are reviewed. Alcohol withdrawal syndrome assessment and its treatment options are discussed. Description of nicotine withdrawal and related publications specific to the critically ill are also reviewed.

Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens in the critically ill: a systematic review and commentary.

Introduction: Alcohol withdrawal is common among intensive care unit (ICU) patients, but no current practice guidelines exist. We reviewed published manuscripts for prevalence, risk factors, screening tools, prophylactic and treatment strategies, and outcomes for alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) and delirium tremens (DT) in the critically ill.

Methods: The following databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Knowledge, pain, anxiety and delirium (PAD) Guidelines REFWORKS, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts and references for published papers were searched.

I-SAVE study: impact of sedation, analgesia, and delirium protocols evaluated in the intensive care unit: an economic evaluation.

Background: Intensive care units (ICUs) account for considerable health care costs. Adequate pain and sedation management is important to clinical care.

Objective: To determine whether implementing a protocol for management of analgesia, sedation, and delirium in the ICU would save costs.

Protocolized intensive care unit management of analgesia, sedation, and delirium improves analgesia and subsyndromal delirium rates.

Background: Sedatives and analgesics, in doses that alter consciousness in the intensive care unit (ICU), contribute to delirium and mortality. Pain, agitation, and delirium can be monitored in ICU patients. These symptoms were noted before (PRE) and after (POST) a protocol to alleviate undesirable symptoms.