Organ donation in adults: a critical care perspective.

Purpose: The shortage of organs for transplantation is an important medical and societal problem because transplantation is often the best therapeutic option for end-stage organ failure.

Methods: We review the potential deceased organ donation pathways in adult ICU practice, i.e.

Reducing interruptions to continuous enteral nutrition in the intensive care unit: a comparative study.

Aims And Objectives: To develop and test strategies to reduce interruptions to enteral feeding to improve practice and promote attainment of nutritional goals.

Background: Enteral nutrition is preferred for feeding patients in the intensive care unit who are unable to have oral nutrition. Interruption to feeding is likely to be a major contributor to patients not receiving their prescribed nutrition goals.

Introduction of discharge plan to reduce adverse events within 72 hours of discharge from the ICU.

We examined the effect of introducing a discharge plan on the occurrence of adverse events within 72 hours of intensive care unit discharge. The study excluded discharges to home or to another institution and "not-for-resuscitation" patients. The adverse events rate was 23%, of which 37% were considered to be preventable.