Active clinical trials for "Critical Illness"

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients commonly experience muscle loss at a rate of 2-3% day. Traditionally, critically ill patients have been managed in bed, however current research suggests that prolonged bedrest cause mechanical silencing of the muscles and exacerbates this muscle wasting. This ICU acquired weakness (ICUAW) leads to poor functional outcome and higher mortality. Research suggests that early out-of-bed mobilisation should occur within 48-hours of ICU admission to militate against this risk, however, this is only achieved in 30% of cases. Common barriers to mobilisation are unstable blood pressure, ventilation, sedation and fatigue. It is plausible that 48-hours is an unrealistic timeframe for mobilisation. The aim of this study is to explore the mobility practices on a given day in UK adult ICUs. The objectives are to: Determine the level of mobility that is achieved by each patient on adult ICUs, on a given day in the UK. Determine the typical physiological profile of patients on ICU that are both able and unable to participate in antigravity exercise Determine the proportion of adult ICU admissions that achieve out of bed mobilisation in the first 48-72 hours Explore clinician decision making about mobilisation This is a multi-centre cross-sectional study on one-day only. Over a 24-hour period data will be collected for all ICU patients at the participating centres. The lead physiotherapist will record the highest level of mobility achieved that day, and the physiological parameters from clinical observations. The reasons for the level of mobility achieved will be ranked in order of importance. These data are routinely collected. Data will be anonymised. Data will be analysed to determine feasibility of mobilisation at 48hours and develop a flow diagram of mobilisation decision-making.

Do very elderly adults wish intensive care in the event of acute life-threatening illness and are their next of kin able to predict these preferences? Very elderly patients are a steeply increasing patient population in intensive care units (ICUs), but the overall benefit of intensive care for these patients remains controversial. Will ICU admission improve survival and quality of life, or will it prolong suffering and delay natural death? Little is known about very elderly Norwegians life sustaining treatment (LST) preferences in these situations where treatment benefit is uncertain. This project aims to improve critically ill very elderly patients' ICU trajectories by bringing forth knowledge about their treatment preferences, their family members' ability to predict these preferences, and by directing attention to the challenges of consent to critical care in cases of medical uncertainty. A selv administered, mailed survey will be distributed among 400 outpatients aged 80 years or older and their next of kin. Respondents will be recruited at the ophthalmologic, ear-nose-and-throat and orthopaedic outpatient clinics at Haukeland University Hospital Bergen, Norway. The investigators developed and validated a survey tool for this purpose, containing 3 hypothetical scenarios of acute life-threatening illness. The scenarios are randomly chosen from 20 hypothetical patient histories and are representative for ICU admission diagnoses in Norway and Europe. The participants will be asked for treatment choices, i.e. wishing admission to intensive care or not. A response option 'not wishing to engage in the treatment decision' is also provided. Furthermore, the questionnaire includes factors that may influence elderlies' treatment preferences and proxies' ability to predict these preferences including: demographics, religion, previous experience with and / or communication about critical illness, comorbidity, frailty, quality of life, and projections (i.e. the proxy's own treatment preferences). The respondents are requested to explain their choices by free-text comments after each scenario. They are also asked to elaborate how they wish next-of-kin should contribute to decision making in these cases. Additional space for free-text comments is provided in the end of the questionnaire. The study design is exploratory. Responses will be analysed with both quantitative statistics and qualitative methods.

End-tidal CO2 measurements in children will be assessed for their accuracy with arterial CO2 measurements.

Brain oxygenation of adult patients undergoing prehospital emergency anesthesia is monitored using noninvasive near-infrared spectroscopy. Patients are afterwards interviewed to define neurological outcome to measure quality of life. The purpose of this study is to reveal the risk factors of prehospital anesthesia related cerebral desaturation events (CDE) and to define the association between CDE and survival, neurological outcome or quality of life.

The investigators hypothesized that the use of biomarkers of invasive fungal infections would increase the percentage of early discontinuation of empirical antifungal therapy and thus reduce the duration of treatment in ICU patients.

Critically ill patients with a predicted prolonged ICU stay will receive neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) of one quadriceps muscle. Whether the dominant or non-dominant side will be stimulated is chosen randomly by using opaque sealed envelopes. The patients will receive electrical stimulation for 1h for 7 consecutive days. The stimulated and non-stimulated side will be compared for it's thickness (by using ultrasound imaging), muscle strength if the patients are awake and cooperative (using the medical research council scale and handheld dynamometry) and a muscle biopsy will be taken. As a primary outcome the investigators hypothesize that electrical stimulation will preserve muscle mass with respect to the non-stimulated quadriceps. As secondary outcomes the investigators hypothesize that electrical stimulation can reduce muscle strength loss and leads to a better protein balance and thicker muscle fibers in the stimulated quadriceps.

Hyperglycemia is common in critically ill patients and associated with an adverse outcome. Thus, glycaemic control is an important issue in critical care. Despite extensive efforts of the intensive care unit staff difficulties were experienced in achieving efficient and safe glucose control. A fully automated algorithm may help to overcome some of these limitations by excluding intuitive interventions and integrating relevant clinical data in the decision-making process. Space GlucoseControl (TGC system) is a decision support system which helps to achieve safe and reliable blood glucose control in the desired ranges. Information on parenteral and enteral nutrition is automatically integrated into the calculations. The primary objective of the current study is to investigate the performance and usability of the Space TGC system for glucose control over an extended glucose control range (4.4 to 8.3 mmol/L) in postoperative cardiac surgery patients.

The aim of this study is to compare two nutritional regimes in critically ill patients. Patients will be randomized to standard care (25 kcal per kg) or to hypocaloric nutrition (15 kcal per kg). Both regimes will recive 1,7 g/Kg/dia The main outcome will be the SOFA (sequential organ failure assessment) score. The hypothesis is that hypocaloric hyperproteic diet decreases the incidence of organic failure in these patients.

Background: Currently used crystalloid solutes have a variable composition and may therefore influence acid-base status, intra- and extracellular water content and plasma electrolyte compositions and have a major impact on organ function and outcome. Despite continuing evaluation no superiority of one particular type of fluid has been reached so far. To the best of the investigators' knowledge no study in humans has ever assessed whether the type of crystalloid fluid given for fluid resuscitation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery has an impact on hemodynamic stability and cardiac function so far. Nonetheless in the animal model it was shown that the choice of crystalloid fluid may greatly influence cardiac performance Primary Aim: In this study the investigators want to clarify whether a balanced type acetate-buffered fluid solution in patients undergoing cardiac surgery is associated with better hemodynamic stability and cardiac function than a lactate-buffered crystalloid solute.

The enrolled children would be randomized to one of the groups 'study group' or 'Honey dressing group' or 'Group I' (honey dressing containing Active Leptospermum Honey also known as Manuka honey would be used), changed every alternate day for a maximum period of upto 8 weeks (in cases of stage IV ulcers) or till healthy granulation tissue appears, whichever is earlier and 'control group' or 'Standard treatment group ' or 'Group 2' (paraffin gauze is applied after application of povidone iodine). Randomization will be performed as per protocol. Primary outcome will be reduction in time to healing of any stage of pressure ulcer and secondary outcomes will be treatment failure and new onset infection of ulcer.