Prospective assessment of a score for assessing basic critical-care transthoracic echocardiography skills in ventilated critically ill patients.

Background: We studied a score for assessing basic transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) skills exhibited by residents who examined critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study in the 16 residents who worked in our medical-surgical ICU between 1 May 2008 and 1 November 2009. The residents received theoretical teaching (two hours) then performed supervised TTEs during their six-month rotation.

Impact of not measuring residual gastric volume in mechanically ventilated patients receiving early enteral feeding: a prospective before-after study.

Background: Monitoring of residual gastric volume (RGV) to prevent aspiration is standard practice in mechanically ventilated patients receiving early enteral nutrition (EN). No data are available to support a correlation between RGV and adverse event rates. We evaluated whether not measuring RGV affected EN delivery, vomiting, or risk of nosocomial pneumonia.

Before-after study of a standardized ICU protocol for early enteral feeding in patients turned in the prone position.

Backgrounds & Aims: To evaluate an intervention for improving the delivery of early enteral nutrition (EN) in patients receiving mechanical ventilation with prone positioning (PP).

Methods: Eligible patients receiving EN and mechanical ventilation in PP were included within 48h after intubation in a before-after study. Patients were semi-recumbent when supine.

Patient-related factors and circumstances surrounding decisions to forego life-sustaining treatment, including intensive care unit admission refusal.

Objective: To assess decisions to forego life-sustaining treatment (LST) in patients too sick for intensive care unit (ICU) admission, comparatively to patients admitted to the ICU.

Design: Prospective observational cohort study.

Setting: A medical-surgical ICU.

Short-term effects of prone position in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with severe acute hypoxemic and hypercapnic respiratory failure.

Objective: To assess the short-term effects of prone positioning (PP) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with severe hypoxemic and hypercapnic respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation.

Design And Setting: Prospective observational study in the general intensive care unit of a university-affiliated hospital.

Patients: 11 consecutive COPD patients with persistent hypoxemia (PaO2/FIO2 < or = 200 mmHg with FIO2 > or = 0.

Early enteral nutrition in mechanically ventilated patients in the prone position.

Objective: To assess the tolerance of early enteral nutrition in critically ill patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation in the prone position.

Design: Prospective, comparative study.

Setting: General intensive care unit in a university-affiliated hospital.