OBJECTIVES:To update the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s guidelines for ICU admission, discharge, and triage, providing a framework for clinical practice, the development of institutional ...policies, and further research.
DESIGN:An appointed Task Force followed a standard, systematic, and evidence-based approach in reviewing the literature to develop these guidelines.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:The assessment of the evidence and recommendations was based on the principles of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. The general subject was addressed in sectionsadmission criteria and benefits of different levels of care, triage, discharge timing and strategies, use of outreach programs to supplement ICU care, quality assurance/improvement and metrics, nonbeneficial treatment in the ICU, and rationing considerations. The literature searches yielded 2,404 articles published from January 1998 to October 2013 for review. Following the appraisal of the literature, discussion, and consensus, recommendations were written.
CONCLUSION:Although these are administrative guidelines, the subjects addressed encompass complex ethical and medico-legal aspects of patient care that affect daily clinical practice. A limited amount of high-quality evidence made it difficult to answer all the questions asked related to ICU admission, discharge, and triage. Despite these limitations, the members of the Task Force believe that these recommendations provide a comprehensive framework to guide practitioners in making informed decisions during the admission, discharge, and triage process as well as in resolving issues of nonbeneficial treatment and rationing. We need to further develop preventive strategies to reduce the burden of critical illness, educate our noncritical care colleagues about these interventions, and improve our outreach, developing early identification and intervention systems.
To provide clinicians with evidence-based strategies to optimize the support of the family of critically ill patients in the ICU.
We used the Council of Medical Specialty Societies principles for the ...development of clinical guidelines as the framework for guideline development. We assembled an international multidisciplinary team of 29 members with expertise in guideline development, evidence analysis, and family-centered care to revise the 2007 Clinical Practice Guidelines for support of the family in the patient-centered ICU. We conducted a scoping review of qualitative research that explored family-centered care in the ICU. Thematic analyses were conducted to support Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome question development. Patients and families validated the importance of interventions and outcomes. We then conducted a systematic review using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations methodology to make recommendations for practice. Recommendations were subjected to electronic voting with pre-established voting thresholds. No industry funding was associated with the guideline development.
The scoping review yielded 683 qualitative studies; 228 were used for thematic analysis and Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome question development. The systematic review search yielded 4,158 reports after deduplication and 76 additional studies were added from alerts and hand searches; 238 studies met inclusion criteria. We made 23 recommendations from moderate, low, and very low level of evidence on the topics of: communication with family members, family presence, family support, consultations and ICU team members, and operational and environmental issues. We provide recommendations for future research and work-tools to support translation of the recommendations into practice.
These guidelines identify the evidence base for best practices for family-centered care in the ICU. All recommendations were weak, highlighting the relative nascency of this field of research and the importance of future research to identify the most effective interventions to improve this important aspect of ICU care.
OBJECTIVES:Coronavirus disease 2019 patients are currently overwhelming the world’s healthcare systems. This article provides practical guidance to front-line physicians forced to make critical ...rationing decisions.
DATA SOURCES:PubMed and Medline search for scientific literature, reviews, and guidance documents related to epidemic ICU triage including from professional bodies.
STUDY SELECTION:Clinical studies, reviews, and guidelines were selected and reviewed by all authors and discussed by internet conference and email.
DATA EXTRACTION:References and data were based on relevance and author consensus.
DATA SYNTHESIS:We review key challenges of resource-driven triage and data from affected ICUs. We recommend that once available resources are maximally extended, triage is justified utilizing a strategy that provides the greatest good for the greatest number of patients. A triage algorithm based on clinical estimations of the incremental survival benefit (saving the most life-years) provided by ICU care is proposed. “First come, first served” is used to choose between individuals with equal priorities and benefits. The algorithm provides practical guidance, is easy to follow, rapidly implementable and flexible. It has four prioritization categoriesperformance score, ASA score, number of organ failures, and predicted survival. Individual units can readily adapt the algorithm to meet local requirements for the evolving pandemic. Although the algorithm improves consistency and provides practical and psychologic support to those performing triage, the final decision remains a clinical one. Depending on country and operational circumstances, triage decisions may be made by a triage team or individual doctors. However, an experienced critical care specialist physician should be ultimately responsible for the triage decision. Cautious discharge criteria are proposed acknowledging the difficulties to facilitate the admission of queuing patients.
CONCLUSIONS:Individual institutions may use this guidance to develop prospective protocols that assist the implementation of triage decisions to ensure fairness, enhance consistency, and decrease provider moral distress.
Pandemics and disasters can result in large numbers of critically ill or injured patients who may overwhelm available resources despite implementing surge-response strategies. If this occurs, ...critical care triage, which includes both prioritizing patients for care and rationing scarce resources, will be required. The suggestions in this chapter are important for all who are involved in large-scale pandemics or disasters with multiple critically ill or injured patients, including front-line clinicians, hospital administrators, and public health or government officials.
The Triage topic panel reviewed previous task force suggestions and the literature to identify 17 key questions for which specific literature searches were then conducted to identify studies upon which evidence-based recommendations could be made. No studies of sufficient quality were identified. Therefore, the panel developed expert opinion-based suggestions using a modified Delphi process. Suggestions from the previous task force that were not being updated were also included for validation by the expert panel.
The suggestions from the task force outline the key principles upon which critical care triage should be based as well as a path for the development of the plans, processes, and infrastructure required. This article provides 11 suggestions regarding the principles upon which critical care triage should be based and policies to guide critical care triage.
Ethical and efficient critical care triage is a complex process that requires significant planning and preparation. At present, the prognostic tools required to produce an effective decision support system (triage protocol) as well as the infrastructure, processes, legal protections, and training are largely lacking in most jurisdictions. Therefore, critical care triage should be a last resort after mass critical care surge strategies.
Public health emergencies have the potential to place enormous strain on health systems. The current pandemic of the novel 2019 coronavirus disease has required hospitals in numerous countries to ...expand their surge capacity to meet the needs of patients with critical illness. When even surge capacity is exceeded, however, principles of critical care triage may be needed as a means to allocate scarce resources, such as mechanical ventilators or key medications. The goal of a triage system is to direct limited resources towards patients most likely to benefit from them. Implementing a triage system requires careful coordination between clinicians, health systems, local and regional governments, and the public, with a goal of transparency to maintain trust. We discuss the principles of tertiary triage and methods for implementing such a system, emphasizing that these systems should serve only as a last resort. Even under triage, we must uphold our obligation to care for all patients as best possible under difficult circumstances.
OBJECTIVE:Serum troponin concentrations predict mortality in almost every clinical setting they have been examined, including sepsis. However, the causes for troponin elevations in sepsis are poorly ...understood. We hypothesized that detailed investigation of myocardial dysfunction by echocardiography can provide insight into the possible causes of troponin elevation and its association with mortality in sepsis.
DESIGN:Prospective, analytic cohort study.
SETTING:Tertiary academic institute.
PATIENTS:A cohort of ICU patients with severe sepsis or septic shock.
INTERVENTIONS:Advanced echocardiography using global strain, strain-rate imaging and 3D left and right ventricular volume analyses in addition to the standard echocardiography, and concomitant high-sensitivity troponin-T measurement in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:Two hundred twenty-five echocardiograms and concomitant high-sensitivity troponin-T measurements were performed in a cohort of 106 patients within the first days of severe sepsis or septic shock (2.1 ± 1.4 measurements/patient). Combining echocardiographic and clinical variables, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction defined as increased mitral E-to-strain-rate e′-wave ratio, right ventricular dilatation (increased right ventricular end-systolic volume index), high Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-II score, and low glomerular filtration rate best correlated with elevated log-transformed concomitant high-sensitivity troponin-T concentrations (mixed linear modelt = 3.8, 3.3, 2.8, and –2.1 and p = 0.001, 0.0002, 0.006, and 0.007, respectively). Left ventricular systolic dysfunction determined by reduced strain-rate s′-wave or low ejection fraction did not significantly correlate with log(concomitant high-sensitivity troponin-T). Forty-one patients (39%) died in-hospital. Right ventricular end-systolic volume index and left ventricular strain-rate e′-wave predicted in-hospital mortality, independent of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-II score (logistic regressionWald = 8.4, 6.6, and 9.8 and p = 0.004, 0.010, and 0.001, respectively). Concomitant high-sensitivity troponin-T predicted mortality in univariate analysis (Wald = 8.4; p = 0.004), but not when combined with right ventricular end-systolic volume index and strain-rate e′-wave in the multivariate analysis (Wald = 2.3, 4.6, and 6.2 and p = 0.13, 0.032, and 0.012, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS:Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and right ventricular dilatation are the echocardiographic variables correlating best with concomitant high-sensitivity troponin-T concentrations. Left ventricular diastolic and right ventricular systolic dysfunction seem to explain the association of troponin with mortality in severe sepsis and septic shock.
As intensivists from three distinct regions of the world with different cultural backgrounds, we believe it relevant in this rapidly emerging period of healthcare to share thoughts among clinicians ...providing end-of-life care in the intensive care unit (ICU). Intimate encounters with patients near the end of their lives 1 form a foundational aspect of our vocation as intensivists. This article is our vision of eight top-tier concepts that should be embraced to usher in the best end-of-life care for all patients. We realize that not everyone will agree with these points and anticipate that our “eight things” will stimulate healthy discussion and debate. Furthermore, there might be caregivers throughout the world dealing with different cultural, legal, political, and ethical preconditions that make implementation of the approach presented within this manuscript difficult in some respects. The joint American Thoracic Society (ATS)/American Association for Critical Care Nurses (AACN)/American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP)/European Society for Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM)/Society of Critical Care (SCCM) policy statement 2 and a complementary publication 3 on responding to potentially inappropriate treatment requests provide very helpful references for us in such difficult situations as well as a seven-step procedure for resolution of conflict.
OBJECTIVE:To develop consensus statements for the diagnosis and management of corticosteroid insufficiency in critically ill adult patients.
PARTICIPANTS:A multidisciplinary, multispecialty task ...force of experts in critical care medicine was convened from the membership of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. In addition, international experts in endocrinology were invited to participate.
DESIGN/METHODS:The task force members reviewed published literature and provided expert opinion from which the consensus was derived. The consensus statements were developed using a modified Delphi methodology. The strength of each recommendation was quantified using the Modified GRADE system, which classifies recommendations as strong (grade 1) or weak (grade 2) and the quality of evidence as high (grade A), moderate (grade B), or low (grade C) based on factors that include the study design, the consistency of the results, and the directness of the evidence.
RESULTS:The task force coined the term critical illness–related corticosteroid insufficiency to describe the dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that occurs during critical illness. Critical illness–related corticosteroid insufficiency is caused by adrenal insufficiency together with tissue corticosteroid resistance and is characterized by an exaggerated and protracted proinflammatory response. Critical illness–related corticosteroid insufficiency should be suspected in hypotensive patients who have responded poorly to fluids and vasopressor agents, particularly in the setting of sepsis. At this time, the diagnosis of tissue corticosteroid resistance remains problematic. Adrenal insufficiency in critically ill patients is best made by a delta total serum cortisol of <9 μg/dL after adrenocorticotrophic hormone (250 μg) administration or a random total cortisol of <10 μg/dL. The benefit of treatment with glucocorticoids at this time seems to be limited to patients with vasopressor-dependent septic shock and patients with early severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (Pao2/Fio2 of <200 and within 14 days of onset). The adrenocorticotrophic hormone stimulation test should not be used to identify those patients with septic shock or acute respiratory distress syndrome who should receive glucocorticoids. Hydrocortisone in a dose of 200 mg/day in four divided doses or as a continuous infusion in a dose of 240 mg/day (10 mg/hr) for ≥7 days is recommended for septic shock. Methylprednisolone in a dose of 1 mg·kg·day for ≥14 days is recommended in patients with severe early acute respiratory distress syndrome. Glucocorticoids should be weaned and not stopped abruptly. Reinstitution of treatment should be considered with recurrence of signs of sepsis, hypotension, or worsening oxygenation. Dexamethasone is not recommended to treat critical illness–related corticosteroid insufficiency. The role of glucocorticoids in the management of patients with community-acquired pneumonia, liver failure, pancreatitis, those undergoing cardiac surgery, and other groups of critically ill patients requires further investigation.
CONCLUSION:Evidence-linked consensus statements with regard to the diagnosis and management of corticosteroid deficiency in critically ill patients have been developed by a multidisciplinary, multispecialty task force.
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