Resuscitative Thoracotomy
Resuscitative thoracotomy is a thoracotomy performed prehospital, in the emergency department or elsewhere that is an integral part of the initial resuscitation of a patient; an alternate term is emergency thoracotomy
Category CCC
The LITFL Critical Care Compendium is a comprehensive collection of pages concisely covering the core topics and controversies of critical care.
Crush Syndrome
Crush Syndrome: prolonged ischaemic and muscular damage -> rhabdomyolysis and reperfusion injury on release; limb often initially numb with a peripheral pulse -> rapid swelling with compartment syndrome
Asterixis DDx
Asterixis is the sudden loss of muscle tone during sustained contraction of an outstretched limb. It is associated with a silent period on EMG, distinguishing it from myoclonus, and is sometimes referred to as ‘negative myoclonus’.
Wasting: small muscles of the hand
Wasting: small muscles of the hand. Underlying causes are best considered according to the level of neurological involvement.
Intracranial calcification DDx
Intracranial calcification may be divided into neoplastic, vascular, infectious or miscellaneous causes; basal ganglia calcification suggests specific underlying causes.
Fixed dilated pupil DDx
Suspect herniation due to an intracranial mass lesion as a cause of fixed dilated pupil in an unconscious patient. A fixed dilated pupil in an awake patient is NOT due to herniation.
Volume versus Time Graph
Volume vs time graph: shape determined by flow pattern used in ventilation mode:-> ascending ramp: square wave; -> sinusoidal ramp: sine wave; -> exponential rise: decelerating flow pattern
Flow Volume Loops
Flow Volume Loops. provide a graphical analysis of inspiratory and expiratory flow from various inspired lung volumes. Breathing across a pneumotachograph subjects inhale to TLC -> FEC manoeuvre -> rapidly inhale back to TLC.
Volutrauma
Volutrauma = complication from mechanical ventilation that may manifest as: extra-alveolar air and/or acute ventilator induced lung injury.
High Frequency Ventilation
High Frequency Ventilation ventilation with small tidal volumes at high frequencies
Equipment and Procedure Viva
Equipment and Procedure Viva
Persistent and Chronic Critical Illness
Advances in intensive care have led to a growing cohort of patients of patients, who would have otherwise succumbed to acute illness, survive in a state dependent on prolonged intensive care therapies including mechanical ventilation