Despite relative scarce evidence to support their use, intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABPs) have received high-grade recommendations in both U.S. and European guidelines for use in the management of cardiogenic shock. In the October issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Holger Thiele, MD, and the IABP-SHOCK II trial investigators conducted a controlled study to [...]

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The Normoglycemia in Intensive Care Evaluation-Survival Using Glucose Algorithm Regulation (NICE-SUGAR) trial recruited 6,104 intensive care unit (ICU) patients in 24 hospitals. In this post hoc analysis of the trial’s database, the NICE-SUGAR investigators explored the association between different levels of hypoglycemia and death. Findings were published in the September 20 issue of The New [...]

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Induced hypertension, hypervolemia and hemodilution (triple-H) therapy has historically been considered to be beneficial for the treatment of vasospasm in patients with non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). In the October issue of Neurocritical Care, Martini and colleagues from the Oregon Health and Science University and University of Washington sought to determine the association between early fluid [...]

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Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are often prescribed systemic corticosteroids for a wide variety of indications, including chronic obstructive lung disease and multiple trauma injuries. To assess the characteristics and outcomes of patients with ICU-acquired pneumonia that received steroids, Ranzani and colleagues performed a prospective observational study at a major university teaching hospital in Barcelona, [...]

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In the 2011 recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, avoidance of the femoral vein for central venous access is listed as a class 1A recommendation for the prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBIs). In the August issue of Critical Care Medicine, Marik and colleagues conduct [...]

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