Highlights ■ The elderly had higher severity, more comorbidities, and longer intensive care unit and hospital stays than adults. ■ They required more assistance resources and had higher hospital mortality. ■ Independent mortality predictors: age ≥60, frailty, arrhythmia, transplant, acute kidney injury, vasopressors and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidities, therapeutic resources, and mortality rates of elderly patients with COVID-19 admitted to an intensive care unit. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients […]

Highlights High fatigue and nutritional risk at discharge improved over one year in cancer survivors. Psychological symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder, remained prevalent for one year. 66% of patients had lasting symptoms or impairments after 12 months of follow-up. Nutritional risk was resolved in the following year. ABSTRACT Objective: Post-COVID symptoms are frequent and can be debilitating, particularly in individuals with cancer. However, their impact on this population remains unclear. This study aimed to prospectively assess […]

ABSTRACT This article describes the occurrence of cardiac tamponade in a premature newborn after the use of a peripherally inserted central catheter at a university hospital in Brazil. Pericardiocentesis was performed, the catheter was repositioned using radiography, and minimal residual pericardial effusion was confirmed using echocardiography. The patient showed good progress and was discharged from the hospital on day 47 of life without any complications related to the event. Therefore, although adverse events may occur following the insertion of peripherally […]

Highlights ■ In patients who experienced extubation failure, the total ventilation time was twice as long as that of patients with successful extubation. ■ The incidence of extubation failure was 5.2%, which is relatively low compared to other studies. ■ The study revealed no significant association between the presence of pre-existing illnesses and extubation outcomes. ■ Results indicated that the primary cause of extubation failure was upper airway obstruction, accounting for 67% of cases requiring reintubation. ABSTRACT Objective: To compare […]

ABSTRACT Introduction Spirituality has emerged as a phenomenon of interest in various global contexts. The adoption of spirituality as a fundamental aspect of healthcare remains underexplored, especially in critical environments such as intensive care units. Objective To identify strategies for incorporating spiritual care into adult intensive care environments through an integrative literature review. Methods An integrative review was conducted using the Embase, Web of Science, Medline/PubMed, PsycINFO, LILACS, and Cochrane Central databases. Twenty-one studies published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese […]

Highlights ■ Public intensive care unit COVID-19 patients presented with more comorbidities and higher severity at admission. ■ Public intensive care units required more invasive organ support (e.g., mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and renal replacement therapy) but less non-invasive ventilation and high-flow nasal cannula than private intensive care units. ■ In-hospital mortality was higher in public intensive care units, with an increased risk of death even after adjusting for patient characteristics and illness severity at intensive care unit admission. ABSTRACT Objective: […]

Highlights ■ The COVID-19 pandemic has increased adherence to hand hygiene in intensive care units. ■ Private hospitals recorded higher consumption of alcoholbased hand sanitizer. ■ Interventions are needed to help keep rates up. ABSTRACT Objective: Compare alcohol-based hand sanitizer use in intensive care units in a municipality in São Paulo state, before and during the coronavirus pandemic. Methods: Analytical retrospective study using indirect documentation, with data obtained from a notification spreadsheet for epidemiological indicators of healthcare-associated infection in the […]

ABSTRACT Spontaneous non-aneurysmal aortic rupture is rare and is usually attributed to penetrating aortic ulcers, infections, tumor infiltrations, or inflammatory and collagen diseases. Chronic rupture is infrequent but extremely rare in non-aneurysmal aortas, which makes diagnosis difficult because the absence of an aneurysm can mislead the physician to rule out rupture. Here, we describe the case of an 85-year-old male, who was undergoing oncological investigation for weight loss, inappetence, and back pain. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging performed 3 […]

ABSTRACT Circulatory shock is a common fatal condition. Despite this, information on this syndrome in the current medical literature is fragmented and esoteric. Adherence to each basic element of care can have a profound impact on patient outcomes. Disturbances in pumping (cardiogenic), content/container relationship (hypovolemic and vasoplegic), or blockage in blood circulation (obstructive) can induce tissue hypoperfusion, causing hemodynamic shock. If not quickly reversed, hypoperfusion progresses to irreversible multi-organ failure. The course can be fatal even before reaching this stage […]

Highlights Gradient Boosting Machine and Random Forest models were built for prediction of mortality at cardiac intensive care units. A total of 9,761 intensive care unit stays of patients admitted under a Cardiac Surgery and Cardiac Medical services were studied. The AUROC and AUPRC values were significantly superior to seven conventional systems compared. The machine learning models’ calibration curves were substantially closer to the ideal line. ABSTRACT Objective: Logistic Regression has been used traditionally for the development of most predictor […]