BACKGROUND: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients age 90 years or older represent a growing subgroup and place a huge financial burden on health care resources despite the benefit being unclear. This leads to ethical problems. The present investigation assessed the differences in outcome between nonagenarian …

Objectives: In Europe, there is a distinction between two different healthcare organisation systems, the tax-based healthcare system (THS) and the social health insurance system (SHI). Our aim was to investigate whether the characteristics, treatment and mortality of older, critically ill patients in …

BACKGROUND: In critical care patients, reaching optimal β-lactam concentrations poses challenges, as infections are caused more often by microorganisms associated with higher MICs, and critically ill patients typically have an unpredictable pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic profile. Conventional intermittent …

PURPOSE: Clinical examination is often the first step to diagnose shock and estimate cardiac index. In the Simple Intensive Care Studies-I, we assessed the association and diagnostic performance of clinical signs for estimation of cardiac index in critically ill patients. METHODS: In this prospective, …

BACKGROUND: Prophylaxis for gastrointestinal stress ulceration is frequently given to patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), but its risks and benefits are unclear. METHODS: In this European, multicenter, parallel-group, blinded trial, we randomly assigned adults who had been admitted to the ICU …

Jaarlijks worden er in Nederland ruim 86.000 patiënten op een Intensive Care (IC) opgenomen en behandeld. Dankzij medisch-technische ontwikkelingen zijn de overlevingskansen van IC-patiënten de afgelopen jaren enorm gestegen. De keerzijde is dat een groot aantal patiënten van de IC wordt ontslagen met …

INTRODUCTION: A stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), although potentially life-saving, may cause considerable discomfort to patients. However, retrospective assessment of discomfort is difficult because recollection of stressful events may be impaired by sedation and severe illness during the ICU stay. …