A family information brochure and dedicated website to improve the ICU experience for patients' relatives: an Italian multicenter before-and-after study.

Purpose: Good communication between ICU staff and patients' relatives may reduce the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression, and dissatisfaction with clinicians. An information brochure and website to meet relatives' needs were designed to explain in technical yet simple terms what happens during and after an ICU stay, to legitimize emotions such as fear, apprehension, and suffering, and to improve cooperation with relatives without increasing staff workload. The main outcomes were improved understanding of prognosis and procedures, and decrease of relatives' anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms.

Early rehabilitation for severe acquired brain injury in intensive care unit: multicenter observational study.

Background: The increased survival after a severe acquired brain injury (sABI) raise the problem of making most effective the treatments in Intensive Care Unit (ICU)/Neurointensive Care Unit (NICU), also integrating rehabilitation care. Despite previous studies reported that early mobilization in ICU was effective in preventing complications and reducing hospital stay, few studies addressed the rehabilitative management of sABI patients in ICU/NICU.

Aim: To collect clinical and functional data about the early rehabilitative management of sABI patients during ICU/NICU stay.

Ethical issues associated with in-hospital emergency from the Medical Emergency Team's perspective: a national survey.

Background: Medical Emergency Teams (METs) are frequently involved in ethical issues associated to in-hospital emergencies, like decisions about end-of-life care and intensive care unit (ICU) admission. MET involvement offers both advantages and disadvantages, especially when an immediate decision must be made. We performed a survey among Italian intensivists/anesthesiologists evaluating MET's perspective on the most relevant ethical aspects faced in daily practice.

Factors affecting attitudes and barriers to a medical emergency team among nurses and medical doctors: a multi-centre survey.

Aim: To identify factors underlying attitudes towards the medical emergency team (MET) and barriers to its utilisation among ward nurses and physicians.

Methods: Multicentre survey using an anonymous questionnaire in hospitals with a fully operational MET system in the Piedmont Region, Italy. Response to questions was scored on a 5-point Likert-type agreement scale.

Lung ultrasound predicts well extravascular lung water but is of limited usefulness in the prediction of wedge pressure.

Background: Pulmonary congestion is indicated at lung ultrasound by detection of B-lines, but correlation of these ultrasound signs with pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP) and extravascular lung water (EVLW) still remains to be further explored. The aim of the study was to assess whether B-lines, and eventually a combination with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) assessment, are useful to differentiate low/high PAOP and EVLW in critically ill patients.

Methods: The authors enrolled 73 patients requiring invasive monitoring from the intensive care unit of four university-affiliated hospitals.

A case of unilateral re-expansion pulmonary oedema successfully treated with non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure.

Unilateral re-expansion pulmonary oedema is a rare threatening complication of the treatment of lung atelectasis, pleural effusion or pneumothorax, the pathogenesis of which is not completely known. The clinical picture varies considerably from asymptomatic radiological findings to dramatic respiratory failure with circulatory shock. There are few literature reports of the treatment of re-expansion pulmonary oedema with non-invasive continuous positive airway pressure.