Identifying What Is Known About Improving Operating Room to Intensive Care Handovers: A Scoping Review.

The purpose is to provide a descriptive overview of relevant material exploring improvement of handovers from the operating room (OR) to intensive care unit (ICU). An online search (MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Joanna Briggs), including gray literature and relevant reference lists, was completed. In all, 4574 unique citations were screened and 155 full-text reviews performed; 65 articles were included in the final analysis.

Sequential Organ Failure Assessment in H1N1 pandemic planning.

Objective: The H1N1 pandemic has highlighted the importance of reliable and valid triage instruments. A Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score of >11 has been proposed to exclude patients from critical care resources quoting an associated mortality of >90%. We sought to assess the mortality associated with this Sequential Organ Failure Assessment threshold and the resource implications of such a triage protocol.

Time series analysis of use patterns for common invasive technologies in critically ill patients.

Purpose: Critically ill patients are frequently managed with invasive technologies as part of their medical care. Little is known about use patterns. We examined use trends for invasive technologies used in critically ill patients.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia in severe traumatic brain injury.

Introduction: Pneumonia is an important cause of morbidity following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, previous studies have been limited by inclusion of specific patient subgroups or by selection bias. The primary objective of this study was to describe the incidence, risk factors for, and outcome of ventilator-associated pneumonia in an unselected population-based cohort of patients with severe TBI.

Is regional citrate superior to systemic heparin anticoagulation for continuous renal replacement therapy? A prospective observational study in an adult regional critical care system.

Purpose: Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is commonly used in the care of critically ill patients although the optimal means of anticoagulation is not well defined. We report our regional CRRT protocol that was developed using the principles of quality improvement and compare the effect of regional citrate with systemic heparin anticoagulation on filter life span.

Materials And Methods: Prospective observational cohort study in a Canadian adult regional critical care system.

Dialysis Disequilibrium Syndrome: brain death following hemodialysis for metabolic acidosis and acute renal failure--a case report.

Background: Dialysis disequilibrium syndrome (DDS) is the clinical phenomenon of acute neurologic symptoms attributed to cerebral edema that occurs during or following intermittent hemodialysis (HD). We describe a case of DDS-induced cerebral edema that resulted in irreversible brain injury and death following acute HD and review the relevant literature of the association of DDS and HD.

Case Presentation: A 22-year-old male with obstructive uropathy presented to hospital with severe sepsis syndrome secondary to pneumonia.

Study of clinical course of organ dysfunction in intensive care.

Objective: Multiple organ dysfunction is a common cause of death in intensive care units. We describe the daily course of multiple organ dysfunction measured by the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score in a population-based cohort of critically ill patients.

Design: Prospective cohort study.