BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Ionized calcium (iCa) has been investigated for its association with mortality in intensive care unit (ICU) patients in many studies. However, these studies are small in sample size and the results are conflicting. The present study aimed to establish the association of iCa with mortality by using a large clinical database. METHODS Multiparameter Intelligent Monitorin...

BACKGROUND Long-term weakness and disability are common after an intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Usual care in the ICU prevents most patients from receiving preventative early mobilization. OBJECTIVE The study objective was to describe a quality improvement project established by a physical therapist at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center from 2009 to 2011. The goal of t...

BACKGROUND Adverse events (AEs) are patient injuries caused by medical care. Previous studies have reported increased mortality rates and prolonged hospital length of stay in patients having an AE. However, these studies have not adequately accounted for potential biases which might influence these associations. We performed this study to measure the independent influence of intensive care unit...

BACKGROUND While gastrointestinal problems are common in ICU patients with multiple organ failure, gastrointestinal failure has not been given the consideration other organ systems receive. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of gastrointestinal failure (GIF), to identify its risk factors, and to determine its association with ICU mortality. METHODS A retrospective analysis of...

BACKGROUND Due to the limited data available in the pediatric population and lack of interventional studies to show that administration of vitamin D indeed improves clinical outcomes, opinion is still divided as to whether it is just an innocent bystander or a marker of severe disease. Our objective was therefore to estimate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in children admitted to intensi...

BACKGROUND Intensive care unit (ICU) re-admission identifies a high-risk group in terms of hospital mortality, length of stay, and resource utilization. Only hospital and ICU mortality are well described in the literature on critically ill patients needing re-admission. METHODS With ethical committee approval, from a prospectively collected database of all admissions to a combined medical and...

BACKGROUND The volume-outcome relationship associated with intensive care unit (ICU) experience with managing acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains inadequately understood. METHODS AND RESULTS Within a multicenter clinical ICU database, we identified patients with a primary ICU admission diagnosis of AMI between 2008 and 2010 to evaluate whether annual AMI volume of an individual ICU is a...

Daily routine chest radiographs (CR) are commonly performed in surgical ICU. Unnecessary CR increase costs and expose the staff and the patients to radiation risk. The goal of our study was to estimate the value of daily routine CR in the ICU and to determine the correlation between CR and physical findings in surgical ICU patients. Prospective observational study was conducted during period of...

INTRODUCTION Prolonged intensive care unit lengths of stay (ICU LOS) for critical illness can have acceptable mortality rates and quality of life despite significant costs. Only a few studies have specifically addressed prolonged ICU LOS after trauma. Our goals were to examine characteristics and outcomes of trauma patients with LOS >or= 30 days, predictors of prolonged stay and mortality. ME...

INTRODUCTION Delayed patient admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) due to lack of bed availability is a common problem, but the effect on patient outcome is not fully known. METHODS A retrospective study was performed using departmental computerised records to determine the effect of delayed ICU admission and temporary management within the operating theatre suite on patient outcome. Eme...