Active clinical trials for "Critical Illness"

To assess the effect of addition of probiotic Lactobacilli to standard enteral feeding on infection rates and feeding efficacy in critically ill patients. The study hypothesis is that critically ill patients who receive the addition of probiotic lactobacilli to the enteral feed will lead to a reduced rate of hospital acquired infections. The null hypothesis is that there will be no significant difference in the rate of hospital acquired infection in critically ill patients who receive enteral feeding with or without the addition of probiotic Lactobacilli.

The investigators plan to create several sleep/circadian rhythm friendly rooms within the medical intensive care unit to determine if decreasing sleep fragmentation effects recovery in patients hospitalized in the ICU.

The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of dexmedetomidine versus propofol for prolonged sedation in trauma and surgical patients.

Introduction- Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality and increase health care costs. Critically ill patients are particularly susceptible to these infections and have an even higher mortality. One intervention that has gained much interest in the medical literature for reducing infection rates and deaths from HAIs is selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD). SDD involves the application of antibiotic paste to the mouth, throat, stomach and a short course of intravenous antibiotics. The evidence supporting the use of SDD for saving lives and preventing infections is actually quite strong. However, health care professionals in many parts of the world have refrained from using SDD due to fears of the effects of overuse of antibiotics on the frequency of infections with resistant bacteria such as multi-resistant Gram negative organisms, MRSA and Clostridium difficile. SuDDICU is a cross-over, cluster randomised trial comparing the effect of using selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) plus standard care, to standard care alone on hospital mortality in patients receiving mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU). Secondary outcomes include an ecological assessment and a long-term health economic analysis.

The objective of this trial is 1) to evaluate the safety and clinical acceptability of a 5-day course of mupirocin applied every 8 hours (± 2 hours) to the nares, umbilical and perianal areas of infants residing in the ICU. 2) to examine the efficacy of mupirocin in eradicating SA colonization of infants in the ICU, defined as the absence of SA in cultures of the nares, umbilical, and perianal areas on day 8 (± 2) (primary decolonization) 3) to examine the efficacy of mupirocin in achieving persistent eradication of SA colonization among infants residing in the ICU,defined as the absence of SA in cultures of the nares, umbilical, and perianal areas. Duration is 36 months. Enrolled infants will continue to receive medical care as they otherwise would if they were not enrolled in the trial. The study will be powered with a primary endpoint with 126 participants. Enrollment may continue to 500 participants to power secondary and exploratory endpoints and assist design subsequent studies.

Lactoferrin is a protein that is a component of the immune system. It has many properties that could make it the ideal agent for the prevention of hospital-acquired infections. Lactoferrin has antibacterial properties (is able to kill or stop the growth of disease causing bacteria and fungal organisms), it improves immune function, and can increase the growth of beneficial bacteria in the bowel. Lactoferrin has been approved by Health Canada as a Natural Health product and is sold in health food stores as a supplement. However, given the potential beneficial effects of Lactoferrin, it requires further study as to its effects in acutely and seriously ill patients. One potential use which has not been studied is for the prevention of infections in critically adult ill patients. The aim of this study is to determine the utility of Lactoferrin in this patient population. The Lactoferrin that the investigators will be using in this study is extracted from cow's milk, where it naturally occurs. Cow lactoferrin has similar properties as that normally produced in the human body. This study is being conducted to determine how well a solution of Lactoferrin given orally and through a feeding tube helps to prevent infections and inflammation in critically ill patients in addition to usual care and other measures that are known to be partially effective for the prevention of infections.

The primary objective of this study is to determine whether a dose-adjusted prophylaxis fondaparinux regimen of 2.5 milligrams (mg) subcutaneously administered every (q) 48 hours (hr) in patients with renal failure achieves peak and trough levels similar to patients with normal renal function, and protects patients from developing venous thromboembolism (VTE). Our hypothesis is that a dose-adjusted fondaparinux regimen, which extends the dosing interval from q24 to q48 hr, in patients with estimated creatinine clearance of < 30 ml/min, will be safe and effective.

Anaemia is very frequent among critically ill patients, concerning more than 60 % of them at admission and more than 80% at intensive care unit discharge. Iron deficiency is also frequent at admission, with prevalence around 25 to 40%. During their stay in Intensive Care Unit, critically ill patients are exposed to repeated blood samples and to other blood losses (daily blood loss has been evaluated to be as high as 128 ml/day in median), this leads to direct iron loss. Prevalence of iron deficiency may thus be very important at Intensive Care Unit discharge. However, iron deficiency diagnosis is complicated in these patients, since inflammation induces an increase in plasma ferritin levels and a decrease in transferrin saturation, the two usual markers of iron deficiency. As a consequence, iron deficiency is usely under-diagnosed in these patients. Treatment of iron deficiency may be indicated to correct anaemia but also to improve patients fatigue and muscular weakness. The characterization of iron metabolism regulation by the hormone hepcidin opened new ways for the understanding and the follow-up of these complex clinical situations (combining inflammation and iron deficiency). Indeed, iron deficiency is associated with a decrease in hepcidin synthesis, while iron overload induces hepcidin synthesis. Furthermore, low hepcidin levels are required to mobilize iron from stores. Hepcidin has thus be proposed as a marker of iron deficiency in critically ill patients. To date, standard immunological methods of hepcidin quantitation are only proposed in the reasearch setting and could not be proposed in the clinical setting because it is too expensive. New approaches for hepcidin quantification, based on mass spectrometry are proposed and may be routinely implemented. We make the hypothesis that treating iron deficiency in critically ill anemic patients, diagnosed by hepcidin quantification, may improve the post-Intensive Care Unit rehabilitation, and may thus reduce post-Intensive Care Unit cost linked to hospital stay and anaemia treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the medical economic interest of a new diagnostic method for iron deficiency, based on a quantitative dosage of hepcidin by mass spectrometry in critically ill anaemic patients.

During weaning the work of breathing is transferred from the ventilator back to the patient. Approximately 40% of the time on ventilators is spent weaning. Studies support the use of screening protocols and tests of patient's ability to breathe spontaneously (SBTs) to identify weaning candidates. The investigators work demonstrates that once daily screening is the current standard of care. The conduct of daily ward rounds and once daily screening in ICUs is poorly aligned with the rapidly changing clinical status of critically ill patients. With respiratory therapists (RTs) in Canadian intensive care units (ICUs), a significant opportunity exists to screen patients more often, conduct more SBTs, and reduce the time spent on ventilators and in the ICU. Only one mechanical ventilation trial has focused on the elderly and no trial has evaluated weaning outcomes in the elderly and very elderly which may be influenced by the presence of comorbidities, frailty, malnutrition and treatment limitations. The investigators propose to conduct a pilot randomized trial in 100 elderly (>/= 65 years) critically ill adults comparing 'once daily' screening to 'at least twice daily' screening in 8 adult ICUs. In the proposed trial, the investigators will (i) evaluate their ability to recruit elderly (>/= 65 years) critically ill patients into a weaning trial and (ii) assess whether protocols can be adhered to similarly between elderly (65 to 80 years) and very elderly (>80 years) trial participants. Moreover, they will also address generalizability issues in the conduct of mechanical ventilation research by evaluating potential biases associated with exclusion criteria and consent between elderly and very elderly patients and obtain preliminary estimates of differences in important clinical outcomes between elderly and very elderly participants.

Critically ill patients are predisposed to oxyhaemoglobin desaturation during intubation. For the intubation of hypoxemic patients, preoxygenation using non invasive ventilation (NIV) is more effective at reducing arterial oxyhaemoglobin desaturation than standard method. Objectives: To find out whether NIV, as a preoxygenation method, is more effective at reducing the degree of organ dysfunction/failure than standard preoxygenation during the week following endotracheal intubation.