Management of outbreaks of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection in the neonatal intensive care unit: a consensus statement.

OBJECTIVE: In 2002, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH; Chicago, Illinois) convened the Chicago-Area Neonatal MRSA Working Group (CANMWG) to discuss and compare approaches aimed at control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). To better understand these issues on a regional level, the CDPH and the Evanston Department of Health and Human Services (EDHHS; Evanston, Illinois) began an investigation. DESIGN: Survey to collect demographic, clinical, microbiologic, and epidemiologic data on individual cases and clusters of MRSA infection; an additional survey collected data on infection control practices. SETTING: Level III NICUs at Chicago-area hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Neonates and healthcare workers associated with the level III NICUs. METHODS: From June 2001 through September 2002, the participating hospitals reported all clusters of MRSA infection in their respective level III NICUs to the CDPH and the EDHHS. RESULTS: Thirteen clusters of MRSA infection were detected in level III NICUs, and 149 MRSA-positive infants were reported. Infection control surveys showed that hospitals took different approaches for controlling MRSA colonization and infection in NICUs. CONCLUSION: The CANMWG developed recommendations for the prevention and control of MRSA colonization and infection in the NICU and agreed that recommendations should expand to include future data generated by further studies. Continuing partnerships between hospital infection control personnel and public health professionals will be crucial in honing appropriate guidelines for effective approaches to the management and control of MRSA colonization and infection in NICUs.     

The use of pre- pro- and synbiotics in adult intensive care unit patients: systematic review

BACKGROUND & AIMS: This review investigated whether the administration of enteral pre-, pro- and synbiotics compared with controls in adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients reduced the incidence of nosocomial infections, length of ICU stay, hospital mortality and specifically pneumonia. METHODS: Systematic review of randomised controlled trials comparing enteral feeding and pre-, pro- or synbiotics, versus standard enteral feed alone, in patients admitted to adult ICUs. RESULTS: Eight randomised studies with a total of 999 critically ill adult patients met the inclusion criteria. Pre- pro- or synbiotics were not associated with any significant change in the outcomes studied-length of ICU stay, hospital mortality and the incidence of nosocomial infection and more specifically pneumonia incidence. Few data were available for other outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The use of pre- pro- or synbiotics in adult critically ill patients confers no statistically significant benefit in the outcome criteria studied. There is currently a lack of evidence to support the use of pre- pro- or synbiotics in patients admitted to adult ICUs, and a large well-designed trial is needed in this area.     

重症监护病房患者多重耐药菌感染风险预测模型的系统评价

目的 系统评价重症监护病房(ICU)患者多重耐药菌(MDRO)感染风险预测模型。方法 检索PubMed、Embase、Web of Science、Cochrane Library、CINAHL、CBM、万方和中国知网等数据库建库至2022年6月ICU MDRO感染风险预测模型相关文献。由2名研究者独立筛选文献、提取资料,并评价偏倚风险和适用性。结果 共纳入17篇文献,16个模型受试者工作特征曲线下面积均>0.7(0.64～0.94),偏倚风险评估显示纳入模型均存在高偏倚风险,模型适用性较好。模型中出现最多的预测因子包括抗菌药物、机械通气、ICU住院时间、留置导尿管、性别、基础疾病、共病。结论 现有关于ICU患者MDRO感染风险的预测模型不理想,模型在开发设计、统计分析及报道方面存在一定偏倚。未来应重点关注研究设计的方法学细节和报告的规范性,并通过多中心、大样本量的研究以及进行模型验证与更新,提高模型性能。     

Education and staffing levels in the intensive care unit.

The Joint Board of Clinical Nursing Studies (JBCNS), established in 1972, sought to standardize the type of clinical experience and theoretical input required for postregistration nurses in specialist areas. The English National Board (ENB) superseded the JBCNS as a result of the Nurses, Health Visitors and Midwives Act of 1979. Colleges of nursing will become the providers of specialist intensive care education and the clinical areas or individual nurses will become the purchasers. The implementation of Project 2000 may alter the educational needs of nurses wishing to specialize in intensive care. The introduction of the Credit Accumulation Transfer System will lead to diploma or degree level modules being developed in intensive care. Increasing clinical expertise will be engendered through the ENB Higher Award. More flexible use of the workforce is envisaged, promoting the use of part-time and episodic employment, to meet the demands of the NHS as a contract-based organization.     

Hypoglycemia in the intensive care unit

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review recent articles and evaluate hypoglycemia as a major complication of intensive insulin therapy in anticipation of emerging data from current clinical studies. RECENT FINDINGS: Following the 2001 landmark Leuven study demonstrating that intensive insulin therapy in the surgical intensive care unit reduces mortality, many studies have evaluated aspects of intensive insulin therapy with respect to improved clinical outcome and the impact of hypoglycemia. Specific risk factors for hypoglycemia in the intensive care unit with intensive insulin therapy are diabetes, octreotide therapy, nutrition support, continuous venovenous hemofiltration with bicarbonate replacement fluid, sepsis and need for inotropic support. In prospective studies with a comparator group, the incidence of hypoglycemia in intensive care unit patients treated with intensive insulin therapy is up to 25%, corresponding to a relative risk of 5.0. In studies without a comparator group, however, the incidence is less than 7%. SUMMARY: Hypoglycemia is associated with adverse outcome in intensive care unit patients. It remains unclear whether intensive insulin therapy-induced hypoglycemia per se is responsible for this adverse outcome. The threat of hypoglycemia is a barrier to intensive insulin therapy in critical care, supporting the need for frequent glucose monitoring, readily available concentrated intravenous dextrose infusions, better training of nurses and technological advances in glucose-sensing and insulin-dosing algorithms.     

Acinetobacter in the intensive care unit

Acinetobacter baumannii, an increasingly common hospital pathogen, is notable for its ability to colonise and infect the more vulnerable among hospital patients. The species also has the capacity to acquire antibiotic resistance determinants and thus restrict antibiotic options. Survival and persistence on inanimate environmental surfaces assists its spread within the hospital. A. baumannii has caused several reported outbreaks in intensive care units, in several of which respiratory support equipment was implicated as a vehicle or reservoir. Aspects of ventilator circuit design provide a potential portal of entry to the patient's lower respiratory tract that A. baumannii is able to exploit. Recognition of these critical microbial entry points, particularly the temperature probe and its socket, may provide a means of curtailing Acinetobacter outbreaks in intensive care patients. [AIC Aust Infect Control 1999; 4(2):8-10]     

Probiotics in the intensive care unit

Probiotics are living microorganisms that, when ingested in adequate amounts, provide benefits to the host. The benefits include either a shortened duration of infections or decreased susceptibility to pathogens. Proposed mechanisms of beneficial effects include improving gastrointestinal barrier function, modification of the gut flora by inducing host cell antimicrobial peptides and/or local release of probiotic antimicrobial factors, competition for epithelial adherence, and immunomodulation. With increasing intensive care unit (ICU) antibacterial resistance rates and fewer new antibiotics in the research pipeline, focus has been shifted to non-antibiotic approaches for the prevention and treatment of nosocomial infections. Probiotics offer promise to ICU patients for the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, Clostridium difficile infections, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Our current understanding of probiotics is confounded by inconsistency in probiotic strains studied, optimal dosages, study durations, and suboptimal sample sizes. Although probiotics are generally safe in the critically ill, adverse event monitoring must be rigorous in these vulnerable patients. Delineation of clinical differences of various effective probiotic strains, their mechanisms of action, and optimal dosing regimens will better establish the role of probiotics in various disorders. However, probiotic research will likely be hindered in the future given a recent ruling by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.     

The Leapfrog initiative for intensive care unit physician staffing and its impact on intensive care unit performance: a narrative review

The field of critical care has changed markedly in recent years to accommodate a growing population of chronically critically ill patients. New administrative structures have evolved to include divisions, departments, and sections devoted exclusively to the practice of critical care medicine. On an individual level, the ability to manage complex multisystem critical illnesses and to introduce invasive monitoring devices defines the intensivist. On a systems level, critical care services managed by an intensivist-led multidisciplinary team are now recognized by their ability to efficiently utilize hospital resources and improve patient outcomes. Due to the numerous cost and quality issues related to the delivery of critical care medicine, intensive care unit physician staffing (IPS) has become a charged subject in recent years. Although the federal government has played a large role in regulating best practices by physicians, other third parties have entered the arena. Perhaps the most influential of these has been The Leapfrog Group, a consortium representing 130 employers and 65 Fortune 500 companies that purchase health care for their employees. This group has proposed specific regulatory guidelines for IPS that are purported to result in substantial cost containment and improved quality of care. This narrative review examines the impact of The Leapfrog Group's recommendations on critical care delivery in the United States.     

Operations research in intensive care unit management: a literature review

The intensive care unit (ICU) is a crucial and expensive resource largely affected by uncertainty and variability. Insufficient ICU capacity causes many negative effects not only in the ICU itself, but also in other connected departments along the patient care path. Operations research/management science (OR/MS) plays an important role in identifying ways to manage ICU capacities efficiently and in ensuring desired levels of service quality. As a consequence, numerous papers on the topic exist. The goal of this paper is to provide the first structured literature review on how OR/MS may support ICU management. We start our review by illustrating the important role the ICU plays in the hospital patient flow. Then we focus on the ICU management problem (single department management problem) and classify the literature from multiple angles, including decision horizons, problem settings, and modeling and solution techniques. Based on the classification logic, research gaps and opportunities are highlighted, e.g., combining bed capacity planning and personnel scheduling, modeling uncertainty with non-homogenous distribution functions, and exploring more efficient solution approaches.     

儿童重症监护病房与普通病房病原菌分布 及耐药现状探讨

摘要:目的　了解儿童重症监护病房（Pediatric Intensive Care Unit,PICU）与普通儿科病房（非PICU）患儿医院感染病原菌分布和耐药现状,为临床合理使用抗菌药物进行抗感染治疗提供依据。方法　采用法国生物梅里埃VITEK-2全自动细菌鉴定分析仪进行鉴定和药敏试验,采用WHONET5.6软件进行数据统计分析。结果　2011年1 月-2013年12月某院儿科病房临床分离株共2850株,革兰阴性菌1840株占64.56%,居前4位的是肺炎克雷伯菌、鲍曼不动杆菌、大肠埃希菌和铜绿假单胞菌;革兰阳性菌636株占22.31%,居前4位的是金黄色葡萄球菌、屎肠球菌、凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌和粪肠球菌;真菌374株占13.12%,以白色假丝酵母菌为主;PICU肺炎克雷伯菌对一、二、三代头孢菌素、头霉素和氨曲南耐药率＞50%;PICU鲍曼不动杆菌对头孢他啶、头孢吡肟耐药率＞50%,对亚胺培南、美罗培南耐药率＞30%;PICU耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）占25.00%。结论　PICU与非PICU患儿医院感染病原菌均以革兰阴性杆菌为主,PICU的耐药率明显高于非PICU,对常用抗菌药物呈多重耐药,应重视及加强对PICU患者的病原学检查及耐药性监测。     

Fatty liver in the intensive care unit

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis is a liver disease characterized by steatosis and steatohepatitis in subjects whose alcohol consumption is negligible. The primary form is associated with insulin resistance whereas secondary non-alcoholic steatohepatitis occurs notably during total parenteral nutrition or in patients in the intensive care unit. This review is mainly focused on recent developments in the understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease. RECENT FINDING: Pathogenesis involves the direct role of fatty acids in liver injury, oxidative stress, cytokines, genetic susceptibility or mitochondrial dysfunction. An increased delivery of free fatty acids to the liver contributes to the first hit, originating liver steatosis. The process may undergo a second hit, characterized by inflammation and hepatocellular degeneration. Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a key role by leading to abnormal generation of reactive oxygen species, which cause lipid peroxidation. The peroxidation products and cytokines favor progression from steatohepatitis to fibrosis. Fatty liver disease may also be encountered in the intensive care unit in patients receiving parenteral nutrition. However, an adapted glucose-lipid ratio as source of non-protein calories prevents the development of fatty liver. Moreover, recent evidence suggests the importance of the type of lipid infused (structured lipid emulsion or fish oils). The acute phase response associated with severe disease can also lead to the development of fatty liver in spite of adequate nutritional support. SUMMARY: The pathogenesis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis is multifactorial, but there is growing evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction always plays a key role. Adapted nutrition may prevent in part fatty liver in the intensive care unit.     

Hemodynamic monitoring in the intensive care unit

Patients in the intensive care unit are often critically ill with inadequate tissue perfusion and oxygenation. This inadequate delivery of substrates at the cellular level is a common definition of shock. Hemodynamic monitoring is the observation of cardiovascular physiology. The purpose of hemodynamic monitoring is to identify abnormal physiology and intervene before complications, including organ failure and death, occur. The most common types of invasive hemodynamic monitors are central venous catheters, pulmonary artery catheters, and arterial pulse-wave analysis. Ultrasonography is a noninvasive alternative being used in intensive care units for hemodynamic measurements and assessments.     

Practical aspects of intensive insulinization in the intensive care unit

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Strategies used for intensive insulin therapy of critically ill patients and differences of approach according to medical condition are reviewed. RECENT FINDINGS: Acceptance of proposed glycemic targets for critically ill patients has been tempered by uncertainties about benefit of strict glycemic control for specific target subpopulations, differences between treatment centers, optimal timing and duration of intervention, and safety. Present-day intravenous insulin infusion protocols may perform well only for restricted populations. Assessment of protocol performance requires knowledge of algorithm behavior on or near the narrow target range and, using the patient as unit of observation, examination of glycemic variability. Systems of the future will permit adjustment of algorithm parameters to meet individual- or population-specific targets and match carbohydrate exposure. SUMMARY: Attainment and preservation of glycemic control among critically ill patients are best attempted with intravenous insulin infusion. Advances in the design of decision support and insulin delivery systems, and progress in the technology of continuous blood glucose monitoring, are likely to reduce the risk of hypoglycemia, without compromise of target range control, such that the patient outcomes enjoyed by experienced centers in the future will prove generalizable to others through the extension of new technologies.