Objective: Intensive care unit (ICU) stay for a serious illness has a long-term impact on patients' physical and psychological well-being, affecting their ability to return to their everyday life. We aimed to investigate whether there are differences in health status between those who return to work and those who do not, and how demographic characteristics and illness severity impact patients' ability to return to work 12 months after intensive care for COVID-19.
Research Methodology: This was a prospective longitudinal cohort study.
Background: The effects of obesity on pulmonary gas and blood distribution in patients with acute respiratory failure remain unknown. Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) is a X-ray-based method used to study regional distribution of gas and blood within the lung. We hypothesized that 1) regional gas/blood mismatch can be quantified by DECT; 2) obesity influences the global and regional distribution of pulmonary gas and blood; 3) regardless of ventilation modality (invasive vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Qual Stud Health Well-being
December 2024
Purpose: To examine patients' experiences of receiving care on an ICU for COVID-19 and the subsequent rehabilitation process.
Methods: An explorative and inductive design was used. Participants were recruited from two university hospitals in Sweden.
Objectives: Fatigue is a common symptom in former intensive care unit patients. Earlier research suggests that it is a lasting problem. This study aimed to further investigate the incidence of fatigue through the Multidimensional fatigue inventory (MFI-20) up to three years post intensive care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn survivors of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) incomplete mental and physical recovery may considerably impact daily activities and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). HRQoL can be evaluated with the RAND-36 questionnaire, a multidimensional instrument that assesses physical and mental aspects of health in eight dimensions. The objective was to investigate HRQoL in intensive care patients previously treated for COVID-19 at three Nordic university hospitals, in a prospective multi-center cohort study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA high proportion of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience post-acute COVID-19, including neuropsychiatric symptoms. Objective signs of central nervous system (CNS) damage can be investigated using CNS biomarkers such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAp), neurofilament light chain (NfL) and total tau (t-tau). We have examined whether CNS biomarkers can predict fatigue and cognitive impairment 3-6 months after discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU) in critically ill COVID-19 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: We have previously shown that iatrogenic dehydration is associated with a shift to organic osmolyte production in the general ICU population. The aim of the present investigation was to determine the validity of the physiological response to dehydration known as aestivation and its relevance for long-term disease outcome in COVID-19.
Methods: The study includes 374 COVID-19 patients from the Pronmed cohort admitted to the ICU at Uppsala University Hospital.
Importance: Some individuals experience persistent symptoms after initial symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (often referred to as Long COVID).
Objective: To estimate the proportion of males and females with COVID-19, younger or older than 20 years of age, who had Long COVID symptoms in 2020 and 2021 and their Long COVID symptom duration.
Design, Setting, And Participants: Bayesian meta-regression and pooling of 54 studies and 2 medical record databases with data for 1.
Intensive Crit Care Nurs
February 2023
Objectives: This study aimed to describe the burden of illness and impact on health and working situation among former intensive care patients treated for COVID-19.
Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed at one intensive care unit of a university hospital in Sweden during the first wave of COVID-19 in spring 2020. The burden of illness in health status, cognitive, physical, and psychological outcomes, and working situation were assessed at four and 12 months after discharge from intensive care, using nine validated instruments.
Importance: While much of the attention on the COVID-19 pandemic was directed at the daily counts of cases and those with serious disease overwhelming health services, increasingly, reports have appeared of people who experience debilitating symptoms after the initial infection. This is popularly known as long COVID.
Objective: To estimate by country and territory of the number of patients affected by long COVID in 2020 and 2021, the severity of their symptoms and expected pattern of recovery.
Acta Anaesthesiol Scand
February 2022
Background: The remaining symptoms in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treated in intensive care unit are limited described. Therefore, we assessed patient's perception of their COVID-19 disease, stay in intensive care, and remaining symptoms three to six months after intensive care.
Methods: Prospective cohort study was performed in one intensive care unit of a university hospital in Sweden during the first wave.
Objectives: To describe the results of use of structured daily reflection assessments among healthcare workers at an intensive care unit over the course of one year.
Methods: In this descriptive retrospective study, data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data encompassed 1095 work shifts, evaluated by healthcare workers at an intensive care unit using a structured daily reflection instrument.
Clinical epidemiological knowledge concerning psychodermatology patients is scarce. The objective of this study was to assess morbidity in a new psychodermatology service. Information was gathered from patient records at the psychodermatology unit in Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden, from 1 February 2017 to 31 January 2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Methods to identify patients at risk for incomplete physical recovery after intensive care unit (ICU) stay are lacking. Our aim was to develop a method for prediction of new-onset physical disability at ICU discharge.
Methods: Multinational prospective cohort study in 10 general ICUs in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Background: The clinical importance of immediate coronary angiography, with potentially subsequent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients without ST-elevation on the ECG is unclear. In this study, we assessed feasibility and safety aspects of performing immediate coronary angiography in a pre-specified pilot phase of the 'DIrect or Subacute Coronary angiography in Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest' (DISCO) randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02309151).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Acute coronary syndrome is a common cause of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). In patients with OHCA presenting with ST elevation, immediate coronary angiography and potential percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) after return of spontaneous circulation are recommended. However, the evidence for this invasive strategy in patients without ST elevation is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To describe health status and psychological distress among in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) survivors in relation to gender.
Methods: This national register study consists of data from follow-up registration of IHCA survivors 3-6 months post cardiac arrest (CA) in Sweden. A questionnaire was sent to the survivors, including measurements of health status (EQ-5D-5L) and psychological distress (HADS).
Background: Chronic leg ulcers remain a challenge to the treating physician. Such wounds often need skin grafts to heal. This necessitates a readily available, fast, simple, and standardized procedure for grafting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe return to a good life after successfully resuscitated cardiac arrest may be hindered by cardiovascular morbidity, psychological distress and the consequences of anoxic brain injury. To support the return to everyday life, patients and their relatives are in need of health care follow-up with multiple focuses. Usually, this follow-up consists of at least one of three parallel tracks; cardiology for interventions and secondary prevention, post intensive care follow-up to capture and prevent consequences of the traumatic event and the ICU stay, or neurological follow-up for patients with neurological sequels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim Of The Study: To investigate serum levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) for evaluation of neurological outcome in cardiac arrest (CA) patients and compare GFAP sensitivity and specificity to that of more studied biomarkers neuron-specific enolas (NSE) and S100B.
Method: A prospective observational study was performed in three hospitals in Sweden during 2008-2012. The participants were 125 CA patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH) to 32-34 °C for 24 hours.
Aim Of The Study: To describe differences over time in outcome, physical and cognitive function among survivors of cardiac arrest treated with hypothermia and to examine survivors' life satisfaction 6 months after cardiac arrest as well as gender differences.
Methods: The study was prospective and included 45 cardiac arrest survivors admitted to three Swedish hospitals between 2008 and 2012. Participants were followed from intensive care unit discharge to one and six months after cardiac arrest.
Aim Of The Study: To investigate whether there were any changes in and correlations between anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over time, between hospital discharge and one and six months after cardiac arrest (CA), in patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia (TH).
Method: During a 4-year period at three hospitals in Sweden, 26 patients were prospectively included after CA treated with TH. All patients completed the questionnaires Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Euroqol (EQ5D), Euroqol visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) and Short Form 12 (SF12) at three occasions, at hospital discharge, and at one and 6 months after CA.
Aims And Objectives: To describe relatives' experiences of needing support and information and of the impact on everyday life six months after a significant other survived cardiac arrest treated with therapeutic hypothermia at an intensive care unit.
Background: Being the relative of a cardiac arrest patient has been described as an unexpected chaotic situation. It is a unique experience because the event was unexpected, but also because of the heart disease and the uncertain neurological impact and outcome.