Long-Term Outcome Following Tracheostomy in Critical Care: A Systematic Review

Long-Term Outcome Following Tracheostomy in Critical Care: A Systematic Review

Critical Care Medicine: March 2016 - Volume 44 - Issue 3 - p 617–628

Dempsey, G

Objectives: The prevalence and impact of longer-term outcomes following percutaneous tracheostomy, particularly tracheal stenosis, are unclear. Previous meta-analyses addressing this problem have been confounded by the low prevalence of tracheal stenosis and a limited number of studies. Design: Embase, PubMed-Medline, and the Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials were searched to identify all prospective studies of tracheostomy insertion in the critically ill. To reflect contemporary practice, the search was limited to studies published from 2000 onward. We scrutinized the bibliographies of returned studies for additional articles. Meta-analyses were undertaken to estimate the pooled risk difference of tracheal stenosis, bleeding, and wound infection comparing different techniques. Measurements and Main Results: We identified a total of 463 studies, 29 (5,473 patients) of which met the inclusion criteria. Nine were randomized controlled trials, six were nonrandomized comparative studies, and 14 were single-arm cohort studies. Risk of wound infection was greater for the surgical tracheostomy than for the Ciaglia multiple dilator technique, pooled risk difference 0.12 (95% CI, 0.02–0.23). We did not identify significant risk differences in other meta-analyses. Pooling across all studies according to the random-effects proportion meta-analysis suggests a higher prevalence of tracheal stenosis, wound infection, and major bleeding for surgical tracheostomies. Conclusions: Considering comparative data, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of tracheal stenosis or major bleeding between percutaneous and surgical tracheostomy. In relation to wound infection, we have found a reduction associated with the original Ciaglia technique when compared with that with the surgical tracheostomy. Considering all published data reporting long-term outcomes pooled proportion meta-analysis indicates a trend toward a higher rate of tracheal stenosis and an increased risk of major bleeding and wound infection for surgical tracheostomies. This finding may be biased as a result of targeted patient selection, and f

Application of a Framework to Assess the Usefulness of Alternative Sepsis Criteria

Application of a Framework to Assess the Usefulness of Alternative Sepsis Criteria

Critical Care Medicine: March 2016 - Volume 44 - Issue 3 - p e122–e130

Seymour, C

The current definition of sepsis is life-threatening, acute organ dysfunction secondary to a dysregulated host response to infection. Criteria to operationalize this definition can be judged by six domains of usefulness (reliability, content, construct and criterion validity, measurement burden, and timeliness). The relative importance of these six domains depends on the intended purpose for the criteria (clinical care, basic and clinical research, surveillance, or quality improvement [QI] and audit). For example, criteria for clinical care should have high content and construct validity, timeliness, and low measurement burden to facilitate prompt care. Criteria for surveillance or QI/audit place greater emphasis on reliability across individuals and sites and lower emphasis on timeliness. Criteria for clinical trials require timeliness to ensure prompt enrollment and reasonable reliability but can tolerate high measurement burden. Basic research also tolerates high measurement burden and may not need stability over time. In an illustrative case study, we compared examples of criteria designed for clinical care, surveillance and QI/audit among 396,241 patients admitted to 12 academic and community hospitals in an integrated health system. Case rates differed four-fold and mortality three-fold. Predictably, clinical care criteria, which emphasized timeliness and low burden and therefore used vital signs and routine laboratory tests, had the greater case identification with lowest mortality. QI/audit criteria, which emphasized reliability and criterion validity, used discharge information and had the lowest case identification with highest mortality. Using this framework to identify the purpose and apply domains of usefulness can help with the evaluation of existing sepsis diagnostic criteria and provide a roadmap for future work.

Evaluation Following Staggered Implementation of the “Rethinking Critical Care” ICU Care Bundle in a Multicenter Community Setting

Evaluation Following Staggered Implementation of the “Rethinking Critical Care” ICU Care Bundle in a Multicenter Community Setting

Critical Care Medicine: March 2016 - Volume 44 - Issue 3 - p 460–467

Liu, V et al

Objectives: To evaluate process metrics and outcomes after implementation of the “Rethinking Critical Care” ICU care bundle in a community setting. Design: Retrospective interrupted time-series analysis. Setting: Three hospitals in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California integrated healthcare delivery system. Patients: ICU patients admitted between January 1, 2009, and August 30, 2013. Interventions: Implementation of the Rethinking Critical Care ICU care bundle which is designed to reduce potentially preventable complications by focusing on the management of delirium, sedation, mechanical ventilation, mobility, ambulation, and coordinated care. Rethinking Critical Care implementation occurred in a staggered fashion between October 2011 and November 2012. Measurements and Main Results: We measured implementation metrics based on electronic medical record data and evaluated the impact of implementation on mortality with multivariable regression models for 24,886 first ICU episodes in 19,872 patients. After implementation, some process metrics (e.g., ventilation start and stop times) were achieved at high rates, whereas others (e.g., ambulation distance), available late in the study period, showed steep increases in compliance. Unadjusted mortality decreased from 12.3% to 10.9% (p < 0.01) before and after implementation, respectively. The adjusted odds ratio for hospital mortality after implementation was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.73–0.99) and for 30-day mortality was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.80–0.97) compared with before implementation. However, the mortality rate trends were not significantly different before and after Rethinking Critical Care implementation. The mean duration of mechanical ventilation and hospital stay also did not demonstrate incrementally greater declines after implementation. Conclusions: Rethinking Critical Care implementation was associated with changes in practice and a 12–15% reduction in the odds of short-term mortality. However, these findings may represent an evaluation of changes in practices and outcomes still in the mid implementation phase and cannot be directly attributed to the elements of bundle implementation.

Quiet time for mechanically ventilated patients in the medical intensive care unit

Quiet time for mechanically ventilated patients in the medical intensive care unit

Intensive and Critical Care Nursing [Article in press]

McAndrew NS

Sleep disruption occurs frequently in critically ill patients. The primary aim of this study was to examine the effect of quiet time (QT) on patient sedation frequency, sedation and delirium scores; and to determine if consecutive QTs influenced physiologic measures (heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure and respiratory rate).

Vigilant attentiveness in families observing deterioration in the dying intensive care patient: A secondary analysis study

Vigilant attentiveness in families observing deterioration in the dying intensive care patient: A secondary analysis study

Intensive and Critical Care Nursing April 2016 Volume 33, Pages 65–71


Coombs M et al

Family support in intensive care is often focussed on what information is communicated to families. This is particularly important during treatment withdrawal and end of life care. However, this positions families as passive receivers of information. Less is known about what bereaved family members actually observe at end of life and how this is interpreted.