Blog

Setting the ideal PEEP

Todd Fraser on 15-05-2010

Setting PEEP has to be one of the most confusing things I do. There are some pretty clear therapeutic benefits to PEEP - improved oxygenation and improved cardiac performance to n...

Endpoints of resuscitation

Todd Fraser on 05-04-2010

Categories: Controversies in ICU

Intensive care practice is built around the prompt resuscitation of patients with critical illness. It has long been recongnised that clinical parameters are poor indicators of ad...

Is this the end of Dopamine?

Todd Fraser on 07-03-2010

Categories: Controversies in ICU

The March 4 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine features a study comparing Dopamine and Noradrenaline in the treatment of 1600 patients with shock. Patients with cardio...

Chest versus head

Todd Fraser on 04-02-2010

Categories: Controversies in ICU, Case studies in ICU

So here's the patient - a young man is involved in a motor vehicle accident. He has significant pulmonary contusions and segmental lung collapse, and has a small haemopneumothorax...

Do you filter for severe sepsis?

Todd Fraser on 10-01-2010

Categories: Controversies in ICU

Its been part of our mantra for treating severe sepsis for 10 years or more now, to institute early aggressive haemofiltration in a patient with severe sepsis, with or without over...