Blog

Diagnosing Ventilator Associated Pneumonia

Todd Fraser on 17-05-2011

Ventilator associated pneumonia is an important cause of acquired morbidity in the ICU. Unlike community acquired pneumonia, the diagnosis is not always straight forward, as many ...

Journal Club : Permissive hypotension in trauma - does the evidence support the hype?

Todd Fraser on 08-05-2011

Categories: Controversies in ICU, Journal Club

Did I just give away my position on this arguement? This month we see the release of an interim analysis by a group from Texas, USA, led by the indefatiguable Ken Mattox. In th...

What outcome measures are important?

Todd Fraser on 30-04-2011

Categories: Controversies in ICU

This month, the Archives of Surgery published a paper examining the longer term quality of life in patients admitted to a surgical ICU. The results were profound. The authors f...

Therapeutic hypothermia - who, what, when, where, how?

Todd Fraser on 26-04-2011

Categories: Controversies in ICU

Two recent publications raise the issue of therapeutic hypothermia. In march 2011, Dumas et al published a large retrospective review of outcomes from cardiac arrest. While not...

Reducing the burden of nosocomial organisms in ICU

Neil Orford on 19-04-2011

Categories: Journal Club

With 3 prospective trials, a retrospective trial, and an editorial focusing on measures to reduce nosocomial colonisations and infections in the ICU, it appears this burdensome se...