Purpose: COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in ICU patients. We investigated the incidence of, risk factors for and potential... Show morePurpose: COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in ICU patients. We investigated the incidence of, risk factors for and potential benefit of a pre-emptive screening strategy for CAPA in ICUs in the Netherlands/Belgium during immunosuppressive COVID-19 treatment.Materials and methods: A retrospective, observational, multicentre study was performed from September 2020-April 2021 including patients admitted to the ICU who had undergone diagnostics for CAPA. Patients were classified based on 2020 ECMM/ISHAM consensus criteria.Results: CAPA was diagnosed in 295/1977 (14.9%) patients. Corticosteroids were administered to 97.1% of patients and interleukin-6 inhibitors (anti-IL-6) to 23.5%. EORTC/MSGERC host factors or treatment with anti-IL-6 with or without corticosteroids were not risk factors for CAPA. Ninety-day mortality was 65.3% (145/222) in patients with CAPA compared to 53.7% (176/328) without CAPA (p = 0.008). Median time from ICU admission to CAPA diagnosis was 12 days. Pre-emptive screening for CAPA was not associated with earlier diagnosis or reduced mortality compared to a reactive diagnostic strategy.Conclusions: CAPA is an indicator of a protracted course of a COVID-19 infection. No benefit of pre-emptive screening was observed, but prospective studies comparing pre-defined strategies would be required to confirm this observation. Show less
Background: While the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) is one of the strongest outcome predictors, the current classification of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as'mild" 'moderate'or'severe' based on this... Show moreBackground: While the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) is one of the strongest outcome predictors, the current classification of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as'mild" 'moderate'or'severe' based on this fails to capture enormous heterogeneity in pathophysiology and treatment response. We hypothesized that data-driven characterization of TBl could identify distinct endotypes and give mechanistic insights. Methods: We developed an unsupervised statistical clustering model based on a mixture of probabilistic graphs for presentation (<24 h) demographic, clinical, physiological, laboratory and imaging data to identify subgroups of TBl patients admitted to the intensive care unit in the CENTER-TBI dataset (N= 1,728). A cluster similarity index was used for robust determination of optimal cluster number. Mutual information was used to quantify feature importance and for cluster interpretation. Results: Six stable endotypes were identified with distinct GCS and composite systemic metabolic stress profiles, distinguished by GCS, blood lactate, oxygen saturation, serum creatinine, glucose, base excess, pH, arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide, and body temperature. Notably, a cluster with 'moderate'TBI (by traditional classification) and deranged metabolic profile, had a worse outcome than a cluster with 'severe'GCS and a normal metabolic profile. Addition of cluster labels significantly improved the prognostic precision of the IMPACT (International Mission for Prognosis and Analysis of Clinical trials in TBI) extended model, for prediction of both unfavourable outcome and mortality (both p <0.001). Conclusions: Six stable and clinically distinct TBI endotypes were identified by probabilistic unsupervised clustering. In addition to presenting neurology, a profile of biochemical derangement was found to be an important distinguishing feature that was both biologically plausible and associated with outcome. Our work motivates refining current TBI classifications with factors describing metabolic stress. Such data-driven clusters suggest TBI endotypes that merit investigation to identify bespoke treatment strategies to improve care. Show less
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains one of the most fatal and debilitating conditions in the world. Current clinical management in severe TBI patients is mainly concerned with reducing secondary... Show moreTraumatic brain injury (TBI) remains one of the most fatal and debilitating conditions in the world. Current clinical management in severe TBI patients is mainly concerned with reducing secondary insults and optimizing the balance between substrate delivery and consumption. Over the past decades, multimodality monitoring has become more widely available, and clinical management protocols have been published that recommend potential interventions to correct pathophysiological derangements. Even while evidence from randomized clinical trials is still lacking for many of the recommended interventions, these protocols and algorithms can be useful to define a clear standard of therapy where novel interventions can be added or be compared to. Over the past decade, more attention has been paid to holistic management, in which hemodynamic, respiratory, inflammatory or coagulation disturbances are detected and treated accordingly. Considerable variability with regards to the trajectories of recovery exists. Even while most of the recovery occurs in the first months after TBI, substantial changes may still occur in a later phase. Neuroprognostication is challenging in these patients, where a risk of self-fulfilling prophecies is a matter of concern. The present article provides a comprehensive and practical review of the current best practice in clinical management and long-term outcomes of moderate to severe TBI in adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Show less
Background: There are limited published data on the epidemiology of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission. This study intended to describe the annual... Show moreBackground: There are limited published data on the epidemiology of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission. This study intended to describe the annual prevalence, characteristics, and outcomes of critically ill adult patients admitted to the ICU for an SSTI. Methods: This was a registry-based retrospective cohort study, using data submitted to the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Adult Patient Database for all admissions with SSTI between 2006 and 2017. The inclusion criteria were as follows: primary diagnosis of SSTI and age >16 years. The exclusion criteria were as follows: ICU readmissions (during the same hospital admission) and transfers from ICUs from other hospitals. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality, and the secondary outcomes were ICU mortality and length of stay (LOS) in the ICU and hospital with independent predictors of outcomes. Results: Admissions due to SSTI accounted for 10 962 (0.7%) of 1 470 197 ICU admissions between 2006 and 2017. Comorbidities were present in 25.2% of the study sample. The in-hospital mortality was 9% (991/10 962), and SSTI necessitating ICU admission accounted for 0.07% of in-hospital mortality of all ICU admissions between 2006 and 2017. Annual prevalence of ICU admissions for SSTI increased from 0.4% to 0.9% during the study period, but in-hospital mortality decreased from 16.1% to 6.8%. The median ICU LOS was 2.1 days (interquartile range = 3.4), and the median hospital LOS was 12.1 days (interquartile range = 20.6). ICU LOS remained stable between 2006 and 2017 (2.0-2.1 days), whereas hospital LOS decreased from 15.7 to 11.2 days. Predictors for in-hospital mortality included Australian and New Zealand Risk of Death scores [odds ratio (OR): 1.07; confidence interval (CI) (1.05, 1.09); p < 0.001], any comorbidity except diabetes [OR: 2.00; CI (1.05, 3.79); p = 0.035], and admission through an emergency response call [OR: 2.07; CI (1.03, 4.16); p = 0.041]. Conclusions: SSTIs are uncommon as primary ICU admission diagnosis. Although the annual prevalence of ICU admissions for SSTI has increased, in-hospital mortality and hospital LOS have decreased over the last decade. (c) 2021 Australian College of Critical Care Nurses Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Show less
Background Many factors of trauma care have changed in the last decades. This review investigated the effect of these changes on global all-cause and cause-specific mortality in polytrauma patients... Show moreBackground Many factors of trauma care have changed in the last decades. This review investigated the effect of these changes on global all-cause and cause-specific mortality in polytrauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Moreover, changes in trauma mechanism over time and differences between continents were analyzed. Main body A systematic review of literature on all-cause mortality in polytrauma patients admitted to ICU was conducted. All-cause and cause-specific mortality rates were extracted as well as trauma mechanism of each patient. Poisson regression analysis was used to model time trends in all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Thirty studies, which reported mortality rates for 82,272 patients, were included and showed a decrease of 1.8% (95% CI 1.6-2.0%) in all-cause mortality per year since 1966. The relative contribution of brain injury-related death has increased over the years, whereas the relative contribution of death due to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), acute respiratory distress syndrome, and sepsis decreased. MODS was the most common cause of death in North America, and brain-related death was the most common in Asia, South America, and Europe. Penetrating trauma was most often reported in North America and Asia. Conclusions All-cause mortality in polytrauma patients admitted to the ICU has decreased over the last decades. A shift from MODS to brain-related death was observed. Geographical differences in cause-specific mortality were present, which may provide region-specific learning possibilities resulting in improvement of global trauma care. Show less
Purpose To describe ICU stay, selected management aspects, and outcome of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Europe, and to quantify variation across centers.... Show morePurpose To describe ICU stay, selected management aspects, and outcome of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Europe, and to quantify variation across centers. Methods This is a prospective observational multicenter study conducted across 18 countries in Europe and Israel. Admission characteristics, clinical data, and outcome were described at patient- and center levels. Between-center variation in the total ICU population was quantified with the median odds ratio (MOR), with correction for case-mix and random variation between centers. Results A total of 2138 patients were admitted to the ICU, with median age of 49 years; 36% of which were mild TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale; GCS 13-15). Within, 72 h 636 (30%) were discharged and 128 (6%) died. Early deaths and long-stay patients (> 72 h) had more severe injuries based on the GCS and neuroimaging characteristics, compared with short-stay patients. Long-stay patients received more monitoring and were treated at higher intensity, and experienced worse 6-month outcome compared to short-stay patients. Between-center variations were prominent in the proportion of short-stay patients (MOR = 2.3, p < 0.001), use of intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring (MOR = 2.5, p < 0.001) and aggressive treatments (MOR = 2.9, p < 0.001); and smaller in 6-month outcome (MOR = 1.2, p = 0.01). Conclusions Half of contemporary TBI patients at the ICU have mild to moderate head injury. Substantial between-center variations exist in ICU stay and treatment policies, and less so in outcome. It remains unclear whether admission of short-stay patients represents appropriate prudence or inappropriate use of clinical resources. Show less
The side-effects of hyperoxia can be roughly subdivided in cell damage, inflammation, pulmonary complications, neurological symptoms and vascular effects. These features are responsible for the... Show moreThe side-effects of hyperoxia can be roughly subdivided in cell damage, inflammation, pulmonary complications, neurological symptoms and vascular effects. These features are responsible for the large majority of unfavourable effects and increased risk for morbidity and mortality following (prolonged) exposure to hyperoxia. From this thesis, we conclude that careful oxygen titration and monitoring is the best therapeutic strategy aimed at the prevention of potentially dangerous hyperoxia while preserving adequate tissue oxygenation. In this context, conservative oxygenation in the intensive care unit is a promising strategy to achieve better clinical outcomes for critically ill patients. Administering oxygen remains essential to prolong the window of opportunity and provide as much oxygen as necessary in anticipation of or during arterial hypoxia, and to rapidly establish pulmonary vasodilation or systemic vasoconstriction, when other measures are inadequate or fail. At the same time, clinicians should be well aware of the side-effects that are induced by supplying high levels of oxygen, as hyperoxia is also frequently encountered in critically ill patients.In expectation of compelling evidence from future clinical trials, targeting relative normoxia (80-150 mmHg) by avoiding exposure to both subphysiological as well as supraphysiological oxygenation should be considered the most rational choice in most patients. Show less
Helmerhorst, H.J.F.; Wilde, R.B.P. de; Lee, D.H.; Palmen, M.; Jansen, J.R.C.; Westerloo, D.J. van; Jonge, E. de 2017
