Active clinical trials for "Critical Illness"

Patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) traditionally receive bed rest as part of their care. They develop muscle weakness even after only a few days of mechanical ventilation that may prolong their time in ICU and in hospital, but the nature of such weakness is poorly understood. The weakness that develops in ICU is more substantial than that which would result from bed rest alone and is referred to as ICU acquired weakness (ICUAW). This weakness might be due to the combination of inflammation and immobility. The exact mechanisms leading to the nerve and muscle damage which occurs in critical illness are not yet fully understood and require further investigation. However, it is known that ICUAW has an effect on a patient's ability to breathe without a ventilator, walk and perform simple activities (like washing and toileting) and often results in longer mechanical ventilation time and hence, longer hospital stays than might otherwise be expected. It may also affect a patient's ability to return home after their hospital stay. The recovery period in Australian and New Zealand ICU patients is unknown but a trial from Canada has reported ongoing weakness five years after leaving ICU. Weakness in survivors of intensive care is known to be a substantial problem. It is currently not known whether ICUAW may be avoided or its severity reduced with simple strategies of early exercise in ICU. There are no data about the level of activity and mobility in critically ill patients in Australian and New Zealand ICUs. These data are urgently required to plan a program of research to test whether increasing the level of mobility and activity in our critically ill patients is safe, feasible and efficacious in terms of reducing the severity of ICUAW and improving patient-centred outcomes. The program of research will first include a study to observe the mobility levels in 25 ICUs across Australia and New Zealand to determine safety, barriers to mobility and what type of activities are undertaken by our patients. From the observational data we plan to develop a pilot randomised controlled trial of early mobility and activity in intensive care units across Australia and New Zealand. This simple, cost-effective strategy may improve functional ability, decrease time on mechanical ventilation and improve long term outcomes in this patient group. By initiating such a program, ANZ investigators might be able to change future patient outcomes worldwide.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of EMS as a preventive and therapeutic tool of CIPNM. The investigators hypothesized that EMS will prevent the development of CIPNM or have a beneficial role as a therapeutic means in case of CIPNM appearance.

Canadian Critical Care Nutrition Guidelines assist health practitioners in identifying best practices for feeding critically ill patients. However, guidelines have resulted in little change in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) practices, possibly because barriers to change differ between ICUs. Change may be facilitated if strategies specifically address identified barriers. The investigators hypothesize that barriers are inversely related to nutrition performance. Tailoring change strategies to overcome barriers to change will reduce the presence of these barriers and lead to improvements in nutrition practice.

The purpose of the study is to inform decision-makers of the best strategies to implement advanced care planning (ACP). An advanced care plan (ACP) is a verbal or written instruction describing what kind of care an individual would want (or not want)if they are no longer able speak for themselves to make health care decisions.

This study will assess enteral feeding in an obese critically ill population with a higher protein whey based peptide formula.

This is a prospective observational study to examine the levels of glucoregulatory hormones, with special focus on incretins levels, in critically ill patients with stress hyperglycemia.

The starting point of ELOISE is the significant number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) survivors who die after the transfer to ward. This mortality rate nullifies the sophisticated diagnostics and the life-support therapies adopted in the ICU. The inadequate care available at the destination ward has been suggested as one of the reasons to explain the bad outcome of some ICU survivors, but most hospitals do not have enough ICU beds to prolong the ICU stay until the patient has fully recovered. Therefore, Inter Mediate Care Units (IMCU) with levels of nursing staff and costs lower than ICU but higher than wards have been proposed to facilitate discharges of ICU patients. Unfortunately the literature does provide evidence of efficacy of IMCU. The primary aim of the study is to assess whether the patients admitted to ICUs with availability of IMCU have lower hospital mortality than those admitted to the ICU without availability of IMCU. Secondary aims are as follows: To compare Lengths Of ICU and Hospital Stay (LOIS and LOHS, respectively) of patients admitted to ICUs with or without availability of IMCU. To assess the influence of IMCU on the rate of ICU readmissions. To compare the hospital survival of patients discharged to IMCU and general ward (in hospital with or without availability of IMCU) adjusted for severity of illness and nursing workload at ICU discharge. This last aim will require a larger sample size (more than 10,000), but we hope to collect such a sample.

This work aims to describe the characteristics and methods of management of patients suffering from a solid tumor treated with immunotherapy admitted to intensive care.

Early categorization of critically ill patients by calculating MEWS score in hospitals may give a time window for appropriate steps. If a patient is suffering from sepsis, timely intravenous fluids, early antibiotics and monitoring in a low resource country like Pakistan, may have a great impact. Therefore, the current research is planned to early identify critically ill patients by applying MEWS and reducing the mortality by providing early management and taking appropriate life saving measures. Objective: To compare frequency of mortality on 7th day of admission in HDU patients with Modified Early Warning Score at the time of admission of < 5 & ≥ 5.

Follow-up after treatment with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) at the ECMO Center Karolinska. Patients: adult survivors treated with ECMO for severe refractory respiratory failure at least 5 years earlier. Investigations: brain and pulmonary radiographic morphology, cognitive testing, pulmonary function testing, exercise tolerance, quality of life and mood disorder screening.