Introduction: Critically ill patients often need blood transfusion, but no reliable predictors of transfusion requirements are available at Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission. We hypothesized that ICU patients admitted with Iron Deficiency (ID) may be at higher risk for developing anemia, requiring blood transfusion. The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of ID in ICU patients ...

Procalcitonin (PCT) has been used to guide treatment in critically ill patients with sepsis, but whether PCT at intensive care unit (ICU) discharge can stratify risks of post-ICU readmission or mortality is unknown. This cohort study compared the ability of PCT with C-reactive protein (CRP) in predicting unexpected adverse post-ICU events. Of the 1877 patients admitted to the multidisciplinary ...

BACKGROUND The association between levels of acute kidney injury (AKI) during ICU admission and long-term mortality are not well defined. METHODS We examined medical records of adult patients admitted to a large tertiary medical center with no history of end-stage renal disease who survived 60 days from ICU admission between 2001 and 2007. Demographic, clinical, physiologic, and date of death...

Over the last 15 years the management of patients admitted in the ICU has changed dramatically. A growing number of well designed randomized controlled studies have been published, resulting in improved medical care and reduction of short-term morbidity and mortality. Despite these important achievements, little attention has been placed on the long-term complications of subjects discharged fr...

Introduction Prolonged stays in ICU generate anxiety for vulnerable patients and family members and are often associated with PTSD. The use of an ICU diary in which families and caregivers write about the milestones of the patient’s stay in the ICU has been proposed as an aid to fill in gaps in patients’ memories. Still, caregivers have not widely adopted the keeping of ICU diaries and provisio...

AIM To assess the changes in health-related quality of life in patients discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS At the General University ICU, Trauma Hospital in Athens, 242 patients were enrolled prospectively over a study period of 18 months. Out of these, 116 participants (47.9%) completed all survey components at 6, 12, and 18 months. We used Quality of Life-Spanish (QOL-SP...

A prospective study was conducted to investigate the incidence, clinical profiles and outcome of ICU-onset CDI in a 50-bed medical ICU at a university hospital in China. Stools were collected from patients who developed ICU-onset diarrhea and was screened for tcdA (toxin A gene) and tcdB (toxin B gene) by PCR. CDI cases were compared with the ICU-onset non-CDI diarrhea cases for demographics, c...

BACKGROUND Some patients experience a delayed discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU) where the intended and actual discharge times do not coincide. The clinical implications of this remain unclear. OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence and duration of delayed ICU discharge, identify the reasons for delay and evaluate the clinical consequences. METHODS Prospective multi-centre observati...

OBJECTIVES To investigate presenting features, prognostic factors and outcomes of patients with systemic necrotizing vasculitis (SNV) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all 210 SNV patients followed in our university hospital and admitted to the ICU between 1982 and 2001, with respect to clinical features, ICU disease severity...