Month: November 2022

Walking Home From The ICU Episode 112 Unplanned Extubations

Walking Home From The ICU Episode 112: Unplanned Extubations

What does research reveal about how and why do unplanned extubations occur? How dangerous are unplanned extubations? We dive into it deep in this episode. Episode Transcription One of the common foundational reasons for giving sedation automatically after intubation is for an inherited sense of safety. Between being uneducated about the risks and repercussions of

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Walking Home From The ICU Episode 111 Both Sides of the ICU Bed With Dr. Wischmeyer

Walking Home From The ICU Episode 111: Both Sides of the ICU Bed With Dr. Wischmeyer

What is like to be an ICU delirium survivor and intensivist? How did Dr. Wischmeyer’s own nutrition research transform his outcomes during his most critical ICU stay? He shares his journey with us in this episode. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:00 Being a patient in the ICU brings a breadth of wisdom and insight. I’m

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Walking Home From The ICU Episode 110: Occupational Therapy in the Trauma ICU

Walking Home From The ICU Episode 110: Occupational Therapy in the Trauma ICU

The trauma ICU has unique risks to agitation, delirium, and long-term impairments. How does occupational therapy help the trauma ICU team avoid sedation, maximize mobility, and radically transform patient outcomes? Phillip Gonzalez, OTR, MOT, shares with us his expertise and success as an occupational therapist in the trauma ICU and traumatic brain injuries. Episode Transcription

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Over the last few years I have become aware of the PICS (post-intensive care syndrome) condition and the very serious negative impact that it has on our ICU survivors. I have become much more aware of the potential negative impact of anxiety, depression, PTSD and cognitive dysfunction. Many patients whom we consider saves in the sense they leave the ICU alive have many issues that most people would consider far from a successful experience. Their lives are often dramatically changed in a very negative fashion.

I am a professor of medicine and have been an ICU director for over forty years. What I find very disturbing in my own experience and that of many other intensivists is that this outcome is generally considered acceptable; the patient survived and will get better with time. We have little access to these patients and almost zero information about their condition unless they are unfortunate enough to return to our ICUs. Very few of us have a PICS clinic where we would have a chance to better understand the challenges that some of our patients encounter, and there are very few systems in place to provide feedback to us as ICU clinicians. Therefore, we are blissfully ignorant of the many challenges that a substantial number of our survivors encounter. This is a major problem. The vast majority of ICU survivors and their families will experience cognitive, emotional and physical symptoms which often have devastating impacts on their lives. At this time, with PICS clinics being a rarity, there is no reasonable mechanism for intensivists to have a solid perspective on the frequency and severity of this condition.

How patients and their families are treated in the ICU often has a major impact on how the patient and families survive post discharge. It is generally agreed that most sedation infusions, particularly benzodiazepines, frequently have higher incidences of delirium and post-discharge dysfunction. There are a few hospitals in this country where sedative infusions are rarely used and the incidence of the complications described above are dramatically decreased. I have visited one of these hospitals and was amazed to see how effectively patients on maximum ventilator support can be managed, even walking without sedative infusions. In an effort to explore this treatment option in greater detail I have identified Kali Dayton. She is a nurse practitioner who has practiced in this Awake and Walking ICU for many years and is an amazing source of information on this topic. After extensive discussion with many colleagues, administration and many others, and reviewing the major potential benefits of the program for our patients, we have decided to introduce this program into our hospital.

Peter J. Murphy, MD, FCCP, MRCPI, BSc

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