Up to 25% of intensive care unit (ICU) patients may have gastrointestinal bleeding when stress ulcer prophylaxis is not administered. In a systematic review and meta-analysis by Alhazzani et al, the effect of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) versus histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RA) on the prevention of clinically important gastrointestinal bleeding was investigated. Their results [...]

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Happy 90th birthday to William C. Shoemaker, MD, MCCM, founding father and third president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) (1973-1974). As a way of honoring him on this special day, we encourage you all to wish him a happy birthday and share your favorite memories. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Shoemaker graduated from [...]

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High-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) has been shown to improve oxygenation and survival in several small trials. Niall Ferguson and the OSCILLATE Trial Investigators, as well as researchers from the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group, performed a study to compare HFOV with a conventional ventilation strategy for patients with new-onset, moderate to severe acute respiratory distress [...]

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Monitoring gastric residual volume (GRV), a common practice in intensive care units (ICUs), is believed to decrease the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Jean Reignier and members of the Clinical Research in Intensive Care and Sepsis (CRICS) Group sought to test this belief and published their results in the January 16, 2013, issue of The [...]

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Current guidelines for the management of upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding recommend a transfusion threshold hemoglobin (hgb) level of 7 g/dL. However, evidence for a restrictive transfusion strategy in acute GI bleeding is lacking. Càndid Villanueva and investigators in Barcelona, Spain, performed a randomized clinical trial to assess whether a restrictive versus liberal blood transfusion strategy was [...]

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