Are patients sleeping during medically-induced comas? Are they more comfortable and free of trauma while sedated? Can patients hear, feel, and understand their surroundings while in a medically-induced coma? Do patients know when sedation is turn up higher? Do they know which providers will let them wake up and which ones will try to “turn
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 164: Antipsychotics in the ICU with Dr. Marie Rueve
Antipsychotics have been a hot topic in the ICU. Do they treat delirium? Can they be used to replace continuous sedation? When and how can we utilize antipsychotics to optimize care and outcomes? Dr. Marie Rueve from episode 160 joins us again to clear the air on antipsychotics in the ICU. Episode Transcription Kali
Sabrina Eggmann is a PhD physiotherapist with 17 years of experience. She shares with us how her team utilized their years of expertise in early mobility to preserve their practices for COVID19 patients in Switzerland. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:48 There’s been a lot of online discussion about whether or not early mobility during
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 162: Standardizing ICU Diaries
In episode 132, David Richards shared with us the life-saving impact of his ICU diary. In this episode, Seth van der Meer from Post-ICU shares with us exciting technological advancements that can help make ICU diaries standardized and accessible for all patients. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:47 Hello, I know we’ve had a month
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 162: Standardizing ICU Diaries
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
Perception Versus Reality: Debunking The Myths About Medically-Induced Comas
By clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to this site's Privacy Policy. Your information is always kept safe.