Month: May 2018

Resuscitation after cardiac surgery in Australia: a survey of practice and the implementation of a training course

Abstract

Objective: To characterise the out-of-hours cover of Cardiac-Surgical Intensive Care Units in Australia, the experience of covering physicians in the training, and management of, cardiac arrest after cardiac surgery, and to describe a novel educational course.

Design: Nighttime phone survey with doctors on public cardiac intensive care units across Australia. Members of nursing, intensive care, and cardiac surgery staff, devised a dedicated half-day course to address the principles of managing a cardiac arrest post-cardiac surgery.

Setting: Tertiary teaching hospital in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Patients and Participants: No patient data used. Qualitative and quantitative feedback from doctors covering intensive care units, and participants, on a pilot course designed to formally train medical and nursing personnel in the management of cardiac arrest after cardiac surgery.

Interventions: Design and implementation of a new training course.

Measurements and Results: We demonstrated wide variation in the availability of training opportunities in Cardiac-surgical Unit-Advanced Life Support, with few units having cardiothoracic surgical doctors on site at night, and the majority of units being covered by a registrar grade, intensive care trainee, out-of-hours. Our pilot course was feasible, well received, and demonstrated improvements in candidates’ confidence in managing cardiac arrests, and their ability to perform, or assist with, emergency re-sternotomy.

Conclusions: The experience of doctors covering cardiac intensive care units varies greatly. There is a lack of dedicated guidelines covering the management of cardiac arrest in the post-cardiac surgical population, with wide variability in whether institutions offer training for this emergency, and how frequently these opportunities are available. There is also a lack of trained medical staff on-site, out-of-hours, able to perform emergency re-sternotomy.

Colistin resistance in organisms causing ventilator-associated pneumonia - Are we going into pre-antibiotic era?

Abstract

Introduction: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most common infections in mechanically ventilated patients. VAP is usually caused by multidrug resistant bacteria. The beta-lactam antibiotics, which were once considered the backbone of antibiotic therapy is under strain due to a variety of bacterial antibiotic resistance. Recent evidence suggests that colistin is the only cannon left in the medical armory to treat bacterial infections, mainly those acquired in the hospital that no other drug can treat. But excessive use of colistin has recently led to resistance to these group of drugs. Initially, resistance to colistin was due to mutations but recently detected plasmid-mediated colistin resistance, which is transferrable, heralds the breach of the last group of antibiotics, polymixins. Colistin resistance is on the rise, especially in South East Asia countries. So strict infection control policies are required to control the spread of this infection.

Objective: This study was conducted to see the burden of colistin resistant organisms causing VAP in ICU of Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Dehradun, India.

Design: A prospective observational study.

Setting: Study was conducted in a 40-bed semi-closed ICU of a tertiary care super specialized hospital between August 2016 to April 2017.

Patients and participants: Out of 2304 patients admitted to ICU 420 had a suspicion of VAP. A total of 476 lower respiratory tract samples were collected from 400 patients with clinical evidence of lower respiratory tract infections in form of endotracheal (ET) aspirate, tracheal tube (TT) aspirate, and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens.

Intervention: Organism identification and the susceptibility testing were done by using an automated system VITEK 2.

Result: Out of 476 sample received, only 186 samples organisms were isolated, which showed Acinetobacter baumanii was the most common organism. It was found that 19 organisms had resistance to colistin. Klebsiella pneumoniae (25.7%) was the most common organism, which was resistant to colistin, followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (16%) and Acinetobacter baumanii (2.4%).

Conclusion: The emergence of colistin resistant strains is a very serious problem as there are only few treatment options. As colistin use is a risk factor for colistin resistance, colistin should not be used alone, combination therapy should be preferred.

Vitamin D deficiency and outcome of patients with sepsis in pediatric intensive care unit: a prospective observational study

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D is important in immunomodulation, regulation of inflammation and cytokines, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, muscle strength, and muscle contraction. Patients with sepsis have high mortality rate and high deficiency in vitamin D. (1) Vitamin D is increasingly recognized as an important mediator of immune function and may have a preventive role in the pathogenesis of sepsis. (2) Vitamin D also influence cardiovascular function. (3) We aimed to find the correlation of vitamin D level with severity of sepsis in patients admitted to pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Setting: Participants and laboratory were collected from patients with sepsis who admitted to the PICU at Dr. Sardjito General Hospital, Yogyakarta.

Patients and Participants: Participants pediatric sepsis patients admitted to the PICU from September 2015 to April 2016. Blood samples for 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration were collected at the first 24 hours admission in PICU using ELISA method. Other data recorded include pediatric logistic organ dysfunction (PELOD) score at admission, PICU length of stay and mortality.

Measurement and results: A total of 297 patients were admitted to the PICU during the 8-month study period. Fourty-two patients had diagnosis of sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock on PICU admission. Of all these studied patients, 25(OH)D deficiency was identified in 23 (54.8%) patients, insufficiency in 9 (21.4%) patients, and normal levels in 10 (23.8%) patients. PICU mortality was higher in patients with 25(OH)D deficiency, ie 7 (30.44%) patients, but it did not show any statistical significance compared to the group of patients with 25(OH)D insufficiency or normal level of 25(OH)D group of patients (p=0.78). The group with normal level of 25(OH)D had the highest PELOD score but on the other hand they have the lowest mortality rate.

Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in pediatric sepsis patients admitted to PICU, but not correlated with PELOD score on admission. PICU lenght of stay also not associated with mortality in PICU.

Electrocardiography Holter monitoring abnormalities in acute intracerebral hemorrhages

Abstract

Objective: To avoid the misinterpretation of electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities in acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), it is important to recognize ECG abnormalities in such patients. Previous studies have reported ECG disorders in ICH patients based on a single ECG tracing. In this study, we used ECG Holter monitoring to determine ECG abnormalities in acute ICH patients.

Methods: This was a prospective analysis of acute (up to 24 hours following admission) non-traumatic ICH patients who were admitted to our hospital between January 2014 and April 2015. Initially, an ECG and cerebral computed tomography (CT) scan were obtained within the first day of admission. The patients then underwent ECG Holter monitoring for 24 hours. Finally, the ECG abnormalities and their association with the CT scan findings were analyzed.

Results: This study included 108 patients with acute non-traumatic ICH. The most frequent ECG abnormalities shown by Holter monitoring were ectopic beats (85.2%), followed by sinus tachycardia (63.2%). Only the presence of midline shift on the CT scan had a significant correlation with ectopic beats (OR: 1.3, CI: 1.05-1.7).

Conclusion: ECG Holter monitoring in 108 acute ICH patients demonstrated a correlation between the presence of midline shift on the cranial CT scan and ectopic beats in the ECG Holter monitoring.

Initial caloric administration as a risk factor for mortality in critically ill children

Abstract

Background: The mortality rate of critically ill children with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in Indonesia is approximately 51.85%. Various studies suggested malnutrition as a risk factor for mortality; therefore, nutrition therapy in the form of initial caloric administration became imperative.

Objective: To determine the relationship between initial caloric administration (initial route, initial time and the fulfilment of caloric requirement) and mortality of critically ill children.

Design: Case-control study.

Setting: The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of Dr. Sardjito General Hospital Yogyakarta in 2015.

Patients and participants: Children aged 1 month to 18 years old hospitalized in the PICU for at least 4 days in 2015. Subjects were divided into case group (non-surviving patients) and control group (surviving patients).

Measurements and results: We used McNemar test and stepwise conditional logistic regression for data analysis. From 102 subjects (51 in each group), the proportion of malnourished children in the case group was higher than in the control group (58.8% and 29.4%, respectively). Parenteral route and lack of caloric achievement within the 3rd to 6th day of hospitalization significantly increased the risk of mortality (p<0.05) with ORs of 13 (95%CI 1.95 to 552.47), 3.8 (95%CI 1.37 to 13.02), 4.25 (95%CI 1.39 to 17.26), 4.00 (95%CI 1.08 to 22.09), and 10.0 (95%CI 1.42 to 433.98), respectively. Caloric initiation after the first 48 hours of hospitalization did not significantly affect the mortality rate (p>0.05). Confounding variables that affected mortality include the severity of disease, use of ventilator, hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and malnutrition (p<0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that parenteral route and malnutrition significantly influenced mortality with ORs of 36.05 (95%CI 3.22 to 404.13) and 9.04 (95%CI 2.09 to 39.19), respectively.

Conclusion: There is a relationship between route of initial caloric administration and mortality of critically ill children, where parenteral nutrition significantly influenced mortality in critically ill children.