The LITFL Critical Care Compendium is a comprehensive collection of pages concisely covering the core topics and controversies of critical care.
A team-based approach to the management of the post-ROSC patient focuses on initiation of therapeutic hypothermia, treatment of the underlying cause with transfer to the cath lab where appropriate, and management of the post-cardiac arrest syndrome.
Deresuscitation specifically refers to 'Late Goal Directed Fluid Removal (LGFR)', which involves "aggressive and active fluid removal by means of diuretics and renal replacement therapy with net ultrafiltration" (Malbrain et al, 2014)
The endothelial glycocalyx (EG) is a thin proteinaceous layer previously thought to be inert, that is now thought to play a key role in vascular integrity and function. The glycocalyx has potential as a novel therapeutic target
Systolic Pressure Variation and Stroke Volume Variation between spontaneous breathing and mechanical ventilation
Vasoactive agents include the following: inotropes; vasopressors; inodilators and some that don't fit like dopamine...
Chronic Graft vs Host Disease is organ dysfunction occurring > 100 days post transplantation; distinct clinical syndrome from acute GVHD; pathophysiology poorly understood
Encephalitis an acute encephalopathy due to an inflammatory cause
Underlying causes are numerous and may be infectious or non-infectious, many of which lack effective therapies
Stroke Thrombolysis: thrombolysis for acute ischaemic stroke is a controversial intervention; it is supported by a number of guidelines and in general is viewed favourably by the neurological community
Parotid swelling or enlargement can be unilateral or bilateral, suggesting different underlying causes.
“Best Case/Worst Case” is a communication tool to help doctors explain to patients and their families what different treatment options really mean.
Bias is the systematic distortion of the estimated intervention effect away from the "truth", caused by inadequacies in the design, conduct, or analysis of a trial
Confounding involves error in the interpretation of what may be an accurate measurement by attributing it to the wrong cause. A confounder is a factor that is prognostically linked to the outcome of interest and is unevenly distributed between the study groups