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Sepsis deaths found to be much higher than previously estimated

Twice as many people as previously believed are dying of sepsis worldwide, according to an analysis published today in The Lancet and announced at the Critical Care Reviews annual meeting in Belfast. Among them are a disproportionately high number of children in poor areas.

16 Jan 2020

Lung Rescue Team at MGH reduces mortality risk in obese patients with acute respiratory failure

A specialized Lung Rescue Team established by clinicians at Massachusetts General Hospital to evaluate and treat patients with obesity receiving mechanical ventilation [MV] due to acute respiratory failure has significantly reduced the risk of mortality compared to standard treatment.

16 Jan 2020

Study provides data-based answer for preterm baby's discharge from the NICU

"When is my baby going home?" is one of the first questions asked by families of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Now clinicians have a data-based answer.

16 Jan 2020

Loopholes limit new California law to guard against lofty air ambulance bills

Kathleen Hoechlin lost control as she crested a small jump on her final ski run of the day at California's Mammoth Mountain two years ago. She landed hard on her back, crushing one of the vertebra in her lower spine "like a Cheerio," she said.

14 Jan 2020

Technology protects respiratory tract of intubated neonates

A new artificial model of premature infants will make possible experiments that are expected to reduce injury to infants on respirators.

13 Jan 2020

Critical Care Resuscitation Unit provides faster treatment, decreases patient's risk of death

Patients with acutely life-threatening health conditions who were treated in the innovative Critical Care Resuscitation Unit received faster treatment and had better health outcomes, including a 36 percent lower risk of dying than those who were transferred from a hospital's emergency department then evaluated and treated in a traditional intensive care unit, according to a recent study in the Journal of Emergency Medicine conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

13 Jan 2020

High-deductible plans jeopardize financial health of patients and rural hospitals

Kristie Flowers had been sick with the flu for four or five days in July before the 52-year-old registered nurse from Genoa, Colo., acknowledged she needed to go to the ER.

10 Jan 2020

Minimally invasive technique to directly measure cardiac output in newborns

The amount of blood that the heart pumps in one minute (cardiac output) can be directly measured safely in newborns by monitoring changes in blood velocity after injecting saline, indicates a paper published online Dec. 17, 2019 in the Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatal Medicine.

8 Jan 2020

Airway Therapeutics receives funding to advance BPD treatment

Airway Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of biologics to break the injury cycle of inflammation for patients with respiratory and inflammatory diseases, announced today the closing of a $15.5 million oversubscribed Series C financing round.

8 Jan 2020

Study indicates opportunities to improve quality of in-hospital cardiac arrest care for dialysis patients

A new study indicates that there are opportunities to improve the quality of care for patients on dialysis who experience cardiac arrest while in the hospital, but survival rates are similar for these patients compared with patients not on dialysis.

7 Jan 2020

Current procedures for measuring intracranial pressure may not leave enough time for accurate readings

Careful monitoring of pressure within the skull (intracranial pressure, or ICP) is crucial for some neurocritical care patients.

7 Jan 2020

Study explores the effect of antipsychotics on older hospitalized patients

Delirium (sudden confusion or a rapid change in mental state) remains a serious challenge for our health care system.

6 Jan 2020

Body clock gene impairs defense against pneumonia

Most living things have an internal body clock which regulates when they sleep and when they wake up. A complex set of genes turning on and off, make this body clock run over roughly 24 hours, and a gene known by the acronym BMAL1 is one of the master regulators of this clock, controlling many other body clock genes and pathways.

6 Jan 2020

Researchers develop new way to fight late-stage sepsis

Researchers have developed a way to prop up a struggling immune system to enable its fight against sepsis, a deadly condition resulting from the body's extreme reaction to infection.

6 Jan 2020

New trial shows how parents can avoid bringing dangerous bacteria into the NICU

For sick or prematurely born babies spending their first days of life in a hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, the soothing voice and gentle touch of a loving parent can have a tremendous impact toward a positive outcome -- that is, unless mom or dad's visit leaves the infant with something extra: a dangerous bacterial infection.

31 Dec 2019

Coping with loss of hospital, rural town realizes: We don’t need a hospital

Dr. Max Self grabbed a sanitary wipe and cleaned off the small flashlight in his hands. More than 20 years as a family doctor in rural Fort Scott, Kan., has taught him a few tricks: "I've got my flashlight. See? Look, you want to hold it?"

26 Dec 2019

Texas law highlights dilemma over care for patients with no hope of survival

Critically ill Tinslee Lewis - a Fort Worth baby embroiled in a dispute between her family and a hospital over whether to continue life-sustaining treatment - is the most recent public face of the heartbreaking and intractable dilemmas often confronted quietly in intensive care units.

23 Dec 2019

New software helps prevent ICU delirium and improve patient outcomes

Intensive care unit delirium, a fertile area of clinical research and patient care innovation associated with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is beginning to reshape how commercial electronic health record systems are engineered with regard to intensive care.

22 Dec 2019

Study finds increase in high-strength painkiller poisonings among children

The proportion of high-strength painkiller poisonings among children which result in emergency hospital admissions has increased, according to research published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Toxicology.

22 Dec 2019

UTHealth scientist receives NIH grants for liver injury research

Tiny solutions are being sought for big liver problems by a scientist at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

21 Dec 2019