Developing Cardiothoracic Surgical Critical Care Intensivists: A Case for Distinct Training.

Cardiothoracic surgical critical care medicine is practiced by a diverse group of physicians including surgeons, anesthesiologists, pulmonologists, and cardiologists. With a wide array of specialties involved, the training of cardiothoracic surgical intensivists lacks standardization, creating significant variation in practice. Additionally, it results in siloed physicians who are less likely to collaborate and advocate for the cardiothoracic surgical critical care subspeciality.

Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR) for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest due to Pulseless Ventricular Tachycardia/Fibrillation.

Background: Survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are very low and neurologic recovery is poor. Innovative strategies have been developed to improve outcomes. A collaborative extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) program for out-of-hospital refractory pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VT) and/or ventricular fibrillation (VF) has been developed between The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Columbus Division of Fire.

Standard clinical risk factors for difficult laryngoscopy are not independent predictors of intubation success with the GlideScope.

Study Objectives: To determine whether the first-attempt tracheal intubation incidence using the GlideScope videolaryngoscope is higher in patients with predicted increased risk of difficult laryngoscopy, and to assess the ability of other a priori defined standard risk factors to predict first-attempt intubation success, in aggregate and by forming scores.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Operating room in a tertiary-care academic center.