Background: Intensive care units (ICU) are a cornerstone component of hospital resource utilization. Expected length of ICU stay is important in patient flow management within the healthcare facility. We intended in this study to evaluate the role of admission CRP as a predictor of ICU length of stay (ICU-LOS). Methods: We included 56 critically ill patients admitted to the medical ICU of Assal...

Acute renal failure (ARF) is defined as a sudden and continuous decrease of glomerular function associated with azotemia, and may be followed by decreased urinary output. There is a high incidence of ARF in ICU patients with a high mortality rate. Many factors can promote ARF development or influence its outcome. This study was done to assess the incidence, risk factors, outcome and treatme...

BACKGROUND Initially elevated levels of troponin predict adverse outcomes in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). No research team has investigated the changes in concentration of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) during ICU stay and their association with patient outcome. OBJECTIVE We investigated whether the change in cTnT levels during ICU stay could predict outcomes (death or survi...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND The impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in HIV-infected patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) remains controversial. We evaluate impact of HAART prescription in HIV-infected patients admitted to the ICU of Tourcoing Hospital from January 2000 to December 2009. RESULTS There were 91 admissions concerning 85 HIV-infected patients. Reasons...

INTRODUCTION Many intensive care unit (ICU) survivors suffer from physical disability for months after ICU stay. There is no structured method to identify patients at risk for such problems. The purpose of the study was to develop a method for early in-ICU prediction of the patient's individual risk for new-onset physical disability two months after ICU stay. METHODS In total, 23 potential pr...

Can the use of serum procalcitonin levels safely reduce antimicrobial use in intensive care unit (ICU) patients? We performed a systematic literature review that identified 6 published randomized controlled trials comparing PCT-guided antimicrobial therapy to usual care in ICU patients, extracting data on ICU and patient characteristics, PCT guideline content, intensity of antimicrobial exposur...

OBJECTIVE To determine the epidemiology of colonization with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) among intensive care unit (ICU) patients. DESIGN Ten-month prospective cohort study. SETTING A 19-bed medical ICU of a 1,440-bed teaching hospital. METHODS Patients admitted to the ICU had rectal swab cultures for VRE on admission and weekly thereafter. VRE-positive patients were cared for...

Some studies have shown an association between a prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay and risk factors such as mediastinal re-exploration, advanced age, low ejection fraction, lung disease and organ failure. The aim of this retrospective study was first to evaluate peri-operative risk factors (n = 2683) and secondly to evaluate long-term survival (n = 2563) in cardiac surgery patients with ...

PURPOSE For patients with acute respiratory failure due to lung edema or atelectasis, Surplus lung water that is not removed during an initial stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) may be related to early ICU readmission. Therefore, we performed a retrospective study of patient management during the first ICU stay for such patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Of 1,835 patients who were admitted to...

Background A prolonged stay in an intensive care unit (ICU) after cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) increases the cost of care as well as morbidity and mortality. Several predictive models aim at identifying patients at risk of prolonged ICU stay after cardiac surgery with CPB, but almost all of them involve a preoperative assessment for proper resource management, while one - t...