Critical Care
- Are daily chest radiographs and arterial blood gas tests required in ICU patients on mechanical ventilation?
Although routine testing is common, it has low diagnostic yield and is unlikely to alter patient management.
- Disseminated invasive aspergillosis in an immunocompetent patient
The patient, who has COPD, will require lifelong antifungal treatment.
- Is chest radiography routinely needed after thoracentesis?
No, it should be done only in certain situations, for example, if pneumothorax is suspected.
- Anti-Xa assays: What is their role today in antithrombotic therapy?
Should clinicians abandon the aPTT for monitoring heparin therapy in favor of anti-Xa assays?
- Heart failure guidelines: What you need to know about the 2017 focused update
Prevention, preserved ejection fraction, hypertension, iron, sleep apnea, and acute decompensation.
- Managing malignant pleural effusion
Depending on the circumstances, options are observation, thoracentesis, an indwelling catheter, and chemical pleurodesis.
- Shortness of breath, fever, cough, and more in an elderly woman
The patient’s many problems include ventricular tachycardia, requiring an implanted cardioverter-defi brillator and amiodarone.
- Which patients with a parapneumonic effusion need a chest tube?
Hospitalized patients with pneumonia who develop a complicated effusion or empyema need one.
- What should I address at follow-up of patients who survive critical illness?
Cognitive decline, psychiatric disturbances, and physical weakness can persist 1 year or longer.
- Critical care medicine: An ongoing journey
Although 70% of ICU patients survive hospitalization, the mortality rate 1 year after discharge may exceed 50%.