Critical Care Alert 2003-02-01

Medicine Residents Lack Vital Knowledge on Mechanical Ventilation

In the United States, physicians trained in internal medicine provide a substantial portion of the care of critically ill patients.

Automatic Tube Compensation: A Better Weaning Test?

Synopsis: In this small study, differences in the respiratory rate to tidal volume ratio (RTVR) after 1 hour of spontaneous breathing with ATC were a good predictor of whether patients would remain extubated or require reintubation. But was it really better than other tests?

Patients, Nurses, and Physicians Have Differing Views of Quality in the ICU

Synopsis: Physicians rated the quality of ICU care higher than nurses, and these health care providers opionions did not correlate with those of patients. Patients perceived satisfaction with their care waas rated higher by physicians than by either nurses or patients.

Special Feature: Reversible Myocardial Dysfunction in Acute Noncardiac Illness

Reversible myocardial dysfunction may be much more common in critical illness than has been generally appreciated.

Critical Care Plus: EPO Safe Despite Paris Report, Experts Say

Recent reports from Paris that scores of patients developed aplastic anemia after receiving eprex, the oxygen therapeutic drug known generically as erythropoietin (EPO), have some stateside researchers puzzled.

Critical Care Plus: Study: Respiratory Isolation Measures Underused

Despite measures taken following the resurgence of TB cases in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many health care workers still poorly understand respiratory isolation procedures, says Kevin P. Fennelly, MD, MPH, researcher at the Center for Emerging Pathogens of the New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

Critical Care Plus: ED-to-ED Transfer Not Always an EMTALA Violation

As hospitals struggle to comply with aspects of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), one thorny issue is whether patients can be transferred from an ICU of one hospital to the emergency department of another hospital, based on an accepting physicians request.

Clinical Briefs in Primary Care Supplement

Pharmacology Watch: FDA Issues ‘Black Box’ Warning Based on WHI Study

The FDA has mandated a Black Box warning for all estrogen and estrogen/progestin products for use by postmenopausal women. The new warnings are based on analysis of data from the Womens Health Initiative (WHI) study that was published July 2002.

Critical Care Alert – February 1, 2003

February 1, 2003