Publications by authors named "Nicola Latronico"

Article Synopsis
  • A study investigated the global prevalence of Long Covid symptoms in individuals from high-income countries (HICs) and low- to middle-income countries (LMICs), since most previous research focused on HICs.
  • The research involved 11,860 participants from 17 countries, examining symptoms like fatigue, breathlessness, and their impact on daily life at various time points after hospitalization.
  • Findings revealed a significantly higher proportion of Long Covid cases and associated symptoms in HICs compared to LMICs, suggesting that while LMICs have lower reported rates, the overall impact of Long Covid might still be significant due to healthcare disparities.
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Background: Lockdown measures during the recent pandemic, due to the novel COVID-19, affected several other aspects of lifestyle, but little is known about their long-term impact, especially among adolescents. Our study aimed to assess the long-term consequences of changes in diet, exercise and screen activity levels, sleep quality, smoke, smartphone addiction and emotional distress among a sample of Italian adolescents, 2 years after the beginning of the pandemic.

Methods: We submitted an online survey to high-school students in the province of Brescia, a city in Northern Italy, investigating changes in food consumption and in physical and screen activities, cooking skills, sleep duration and quality, emotional distress, smartphone addiction and nutrition knowledge.

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Background: Reintubation is associated with higher risk of mortality. There is no clear evidence on the best spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) method to reduce the risk of reintubation.

Research Question: Are different methods of conducting SBTs in critically ill patients associated with different risk of reintubation compared with T-tube?

Study Design And Methods: We conducted a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of different SBT methods on reintubation.

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Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is an important global health issue with high in-hospital mortality. Importantly, the impact of ARDS extends beyond the acute phase, with increased mortality and disability for months to years after hospitalization. These findings underscore the importance of extended follow-up to assess and address the Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS), characterized by persistent impairments in physical, cognitive, and/or mental health status that impair quality of life over the long-term.

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Introduction: Long-term weakness is common in survivors of COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (CARDS). We longitudinally assessed the predictors of muscle weakness in patients evaluated 6 and 12 months after intensive care unit discharge with in-person visits.

Methods: Muscle strength was measured by isometric maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of the tibialis anterior muscle.

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Background: Severe weakness associated with critical illness (CIW) is common. This narrative review summarizes the latest scientific insights and proposes a guide for clinicians to optimize the diagnosis and management of the CIW during the various stages of the disease from the ICU to the community stage.

Main Body: CIW arises as diffuse, symmetrical weakness after ICU admission, which is an important differentiating factor from other diseases causing non-symmetrical muscle weakness or paralysis.

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Prehospital field triage often fails to accurately identify the need for emergent surgical or non-surgical procedures, resulting in inefficient resource utilization and increased costs. This study aimed to analyze prehospital factors associated with the need for emergent procedures (such as surgery or interventional angiography) within 6 h of hospital admission. Additionally, our goal was to develop a prehospital triage tool capable of estimating the likelihood of requiring an emergent procedure following hospital admission.

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Background: Cooking skills (CS) have the potential to improve self-care behaviours and healthy development among adolescents. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected lifestyles worldwide, and the present study aims to investigate the level of CS after the pandemic, as well as its associations with nutrition knowledge and eating behaviours among a cohort of Italian adolescents.

Methods: We submitted an online survey about lifestyle changes to students aged 13-21 years during the pandemic.

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Introduction: Not enough data exist to inform the optimal duration and type of antimicrobial therapy against GN infections in critically ill patients.

Methods: Narrative review based on a literature search through PubMed and Cochrane using the following keywords: "multi-drug resistant (MDR)", "extensively drug resistant (XDR)", "pan-drug-resistant (PDR)", "difficult-to-treat (DTR) Gram-negative infection," "antibiotic duration therapy", "antibiotic combination therapy" "antibiotic monotherapy" "Gram-negative bacteremia", "Gram-negative pneumonia", and "Gram-negative intra-abdominal infection".

Results: Current literature data suggest adopting longer (≥10-14 days) courses of synergistic combination therapy due to the high global prevalence of ESBL-producing (45-50%), MDR (35%), XDR (15-20%), PDR (5.

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Postoperative delirium (POD) remains a common, dangerous and resource-consuming adverse event but is often preventable. The whole peri-operative team can play a key role in its management. This update to the 2017 ESAIC Guideline on the prevention of POD is evidence-based and consensus-based and considers the literature between 01 April 2015, and 28 February 2022.

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Background: Mobilization in the intensive care unit (ICU) has the potential to improve patient outcomes following acute stroke. The optimal duration and intensity of mobilization for patients with hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke in the ICU remain unclear.

Objective: To assess the effect of mobilization dose in the ICU on adverse discharge disposition in patients after stroke.

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Article Synopsis
  • Patients who were in the ICU due to SARS-CoV-2 can experience muscle weakness for over a year after being discharged, with females showing more impairment than males.
  • A study assessed physical functioning in groups of male and female patients at two different time points (3-6 months and 6-12 months post-discharge) and measured factors like fatigue, strength, and neural drive.
  • Results indicated no significant sex differences in the early follow-up, but by 6-12 months, females had noticeably greater impairments in strength and overall physical functioning, highlighting the need to consider sex in post-COVID rehabilitation efforts.
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Patients with viral infections are at higher risk to acquire bacterial and fungal superinfections associated with a worse prognosis. We explored this critical point in the setting of patients with severe COVID-19 disease. The study included 1911 patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) during a 2-year study period (March 2020-March 2022).

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Adult and pediatric palliative care (PC) share common aims and ethical principles but differ in many organizational and practical aspects. The aim of this narrative review is to analyze these differences and focus on which key aspects of pediatric palliative care could integrate adult services for a better care of suffering patients.Interventions which are peculiar of pediatric PC respect to adult PC include: an earlier referral to the PC service to identify the needs and plan the interventions at an earlier stage of the disease; consequently, a more systematic cooperation with the disease-specific physicians to reduce the burden of treatments; a better integration with the community and the social surroundings of the patients, to prevent social isolation and preserve their social role; a more dynamic organization of the PC services, to give patients the chance of being stabilized at in-hospital or residential settings and subsequently discharged and cared at home whenever possible and desired; the implementation of respite care for adults, to help the families coping with the burden of the disease of their beloved and promote the home-based PC.

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Background: The current organizational structure of the Italian healthcare system does not include the institutionalization of clinical ethics services. To describe the need for structured clinical ethics consultation services for ICU staff members in the intensive care unit (ICU), a monocentric observational survey study was performed utilizing a paper-based questionnaire.

Results: A total of 73 healthcare professionals (HCPs) responded out of a team of 84 people (87%).

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Purpose: This work aimed to compare physical impairment in survivors of classic ARDS compared with COVID-19-associated ARDS (CARDS) survivors.

Material And Methods: This is a prospective observational cohort study on 248 patients with CARDS and compared them with a historical cohort of 48 patients with classic ARDS. Physical performance was evaluated at 6 and 12 months after ICU discharge, using the Medical Research Council Scale (MRCss), 6-min walk test (6MWT), handgrip dynamometry (HGD), and fatigue severity score (FSS).

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Article Synopsis
  • Sepsis is a serious condition that causes organ dysfunction due to a chaotic immune response to infection, often leading to issues in the nervous system, like sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) and ICU-acquired weakness (ICUAW).
  • The review discusses how these neurological complications of sepsis are primarily diagnosed clinically, though tools like electroencephalography and electromyography can aid in more complex cases, especially to assess severity.
  • It also emphasizes the importance of understanding the long-term effects of SAE and ICUAW, highlighting the need for better prevention and treatment strategies for affected patients.
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Background: To date cardiac arrest (CA) remains a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality: despite advances in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), survival is still burdened by hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HIBI), and poor neurological outcome, eventually leading to withdrawal of life sustaining treatment (WLST). The aim of CPR is cardiac pump support to preserve organ perfusion, until normal cardiac function is restored. However, clinical parameters of target organ end-perfusion during CPR, particularly brain perfusion, are still to be identified.

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