Predictive value of serial evaluation of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score for intensive care unit mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score has been developed to score the severity of organ dysfunction in critically ill sepsis patients and has been proven to have a high predictive value for intensive care unit (ICU) mortality in severely ill patients. Our goal was to evaluate the prognostic value of the SOFA score as well as trends in SOFA score for ICU mortality in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: All consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to the ICU between March 13th, 2020, and October 17th, 2020 were included in this retrospective cohort study.

Four-Week Pain Profile and Patient Non-Adherence to Pharmacological Pain Therapy After Day Surgery.

Background: Nowadays, complicated and painful surgical procedures are encouraged to be carried out in an ambulatory setting.

Objectives: The current study aimed to assess 4-week postoperative pain profiles of 4 painful ambulatory surgical procedures. We analyzed the prevalence of and reasons for non-adherence and partial adherence of patients to a predefined treatment schedule after the ambulant surgery.

Benefits of intensive insulin therapy on neuromuscular complications in routine daily critical care practice: a retrospective study.

Introduction: Intensive insulin therapy (IIT) reduced the incidence of critical illness polyneuropathy and/or myopathy (CIP/CIM) and the need for prolonged mechanical ventilation (MV >or= 14 days) in two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on the effect of IIT in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) and medical intensive care unit (MICU). In the present study, we investigated whether these effects are also present in daily clinical practice when IIT is implemented outside of a study protocol.

Methods: We retrospectively studied electrophysiological data from patients in the SICU and MICU, performed because of clinical weakness and/or weaning failure, before and after routine implementation of IIT.

Effects of vasopressin on right ventricular function in an experimental model of acute pulmonary hypertension.

Objective: Arginine vasopressin is a promising systemic vasopressor in settings such as vasodilatory shock and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The evidence that arginine vasopressin may also have a pulmonary vasodilatory effect makes it an attractive drug for the treatment of circulatory shock secondary to right ventricular failure and pulmonary hypertension. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of arginine vasopressin on right ventricular function and ventriculovascular coupling in the setting of moderate acute pulmonary hypertension and compared these effects with those of phenylephrine.