Background: In critically ill patients, antibiotic therapy is of great importance but long duration of treatment is associated with the development of antimicrobial resistance. Procalcitonin is a marker used to guide antibacterial therapy and reduce its duration, but data about safety of this reduction are scarce. We assessed the efficacy and safety of procalcitonin-guided antibiotic treatment in patients in intensive care units (ICUs) in a health-care system with a comparatively low use of antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Publication of the Normoglycemia in Intensive Care Evaluation and Survival Using Glucose Algorithm Regulation (NICE-SUGAR) trial in 2009 and several observational studies caused a change in the recommendations for blood glucose control in intensive care patients. We evaluated local trends in blood glucose control in intensive care units in the Netherlands before and after the publication of the NICE-SUGAR trial and the revised Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines in 2012.
Methods: Survey focusing on the timing of changes in thresholds in local guidelines for blood glucose control and interrupted time-series analysis of patients admitted to seven intensive care units in the Netherlands from September 2008 through July 2014.
Background: Gastric mucosal ischemia may be a risk factor for gastrointestinal intolerance to early feeding in the critically ill.
Aims: To study intragastric PCO2 air tonometry and gastric residual volumes (GRV) before and after the start of gastric feeding.
Methods: This is a two-center study in intensive care units of a university and teaching hospital.