Predictors of mortality and neurological function in ICU patients recovering from cardiac arrest: A Spanish nationwide prospective cohort study.

Objective: To identify predictors of mortality and neurological function in adult ICU patients recovering from cardiac arrest.

Design: A prospective cohort multicenter study was carried out.

Setting: Forty-six polyvalent ICUs.

[Intensive care services resources in Spain].

Objectives: To identify the resources related to the care of critically ill patients in Spain, which are available in the units dependent of the Services of Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) or other services/specialties, analyzing their distribution according to characteristics of the hospitals and by autonomous communities.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: Spanish hospitals.

Relationship between volume and survival in closed intensive care units is weak and apparent only in mechanically ventilated patients.

Background: Recent studies have found an association between increased volume and increased intensive care unit (ICU) survival; however, this association might not hold true in ICUs with permanent intensivist coverage. Our objective was to determine whether ICU volume correlates with survival in the Spanish healthcare system.

Methods: Post hoc analysis of a prospective study of all patients admitted to 29 ICUs during 3 months.

[Recommendations of the Infectious Diseases Work Group (GTEI) of the Spanish Society of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine and Coronary Units (SEMICYUC) and the Infections in Critically Ill Patients Study Group (GEIPC) of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) for the diagnosis and treatment of influenza A/H1N1 in seriously ill adults admitted to the Intensive Care Unit].

The diagnosis of influenza A/H1N1 is mainly clinical, particularly during peak or seasonal flu outbreaks. A diagnostic test should be performed in all patients with fever and flu symptoms that require hospitalization. The respiratory sample (nasal or pharyngeal exudate or deeper sample in intubated patients) should be obtained as soon as possible, with the immediate start of empirical antiviral treatment.

Intensive care unit discharge to the ward with a tracheostomy cannula as a risk factor for mortality: a prospective, multicenter propensity analysis.

Objective: To analyze the impact of decannulation before intensive care unit discharge on ward survival in nonexperimental conditions.

Design: Prospective, observational survey.

Setting: Thirty-one intensive care units throughout Spain.