Early rehabilitation to prevent postintensive care syndrome in patients with critical illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: We examined the effectiveness of early rehabilitation for the prevention of postintensive care syndrome (PICS), characterised by an impaired physical, cognitive or mental health status, among survivors of critical illness.

Methods: We performed a systematic literature search of several databases (Medline, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) and a manual search to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effectiveness of early rehabilitation versus no early rehabilitation or standard care for the prevention of PICS. The primary outcomes were short-term physical-related, cognitive-related and mental health-related outcomes assessed during hospitalisation.

The Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2016 (J-SSCG 2016).

Background And Purpose: The Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2016 (J-SSCG 2016), a Japanese-specific set of clinical practice guidelines for sepsis and septic shock created jointly by the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine, was first released in February 2017 in Japanese. An English-language version of these guidelines was created based on the contents of the original Japanese-language version.

Methods: Members of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine were selected and organized into 19 committee members and 52 working group members.

Comparison of the efficacy of three topical antiseptic solutions for the prevention of catheter colonization: a multicenter randomized controlled study.

Background: To compare the efficacy of three antiseptic solutions [0.5%, and 1.0% alcohol/chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG), and 10% aqueous povidone-iodine (PVI)] for the prevention of intravascular catheter colonization, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in patients from 16 intensive care units in Japan.

Early rehabilitation for the prevention of postintensive care syndrome in critically ill patients: a study protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Postintensive care syndrome (PICS) is defined as a new or worsening impairment in cognition, mental health and physical function after critical illness. There is little evidence regarding treatment of patients with PICS; new directions for effective treatment strategies are urgently needed. Early physiotherapy may prevent or reverse some physical impairments in patients with PICS, but no systematic reviews have investigated the effectiveness of early rehabilitation on PICS-related outcomes.

Ability of procalcitonin to diagnose bacterial infection and bacteria types compared with blood culture findings.

Procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein serve as biomarkers of infection in patients with sepsis/bacteremia. The present study assessed the clinical characteristics of 280 patients with suspected sepsis who were admitted to Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital between January 2012 and December 2013. Among the patients, 133 and 147 were positive and negative for PCT, respectively.

Association of influenza with severe pneumonia/empyema in the community, hospital, and healthcare-associated setting.

Unlabelled: We presented three cases of influenza-related severe pneumonia/empyema that occurred in one season.

Case 1: A 76-year-old diabetic man, developed empyema as a result of severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) secondary to Haemophilus influenzae, as confirmed on sputum culture. Nasal swab was positive for influenza A antigen.