Preventing Hospital Acquired Infections: Stopping Payment Had No Effect In October 2008, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stopped paying for two hospital-acquired infections: urinary infections due to indwelling catheters (UTIs) and central catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CABSI). At the time the policy was announced years ago, it was described as an incentive [… read more]
Extra Vitamin D Doesn’t Prevent Colds in Healthy Adults (JAMA) It looks like you can add Vitamin D to list of supplements (echinacea, vitamin C, etc.) who’ve gone up against the common cold and lost. (Scorekeepers will note that zinc held its own, though, in a Cochrane analysis.) Vitamin D plays an important role in immune responses, [… read more]
Contrast-induced nephropathy (kidney damage) is a serious problem that can occur after many medical tests and procedures, but coronary angiography (cardiac catheterization) is the main culprit. People with pre-existing renal disease are most susceptible to contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) — about 1 in 8 of them develop a “bump” in creatinine of >0.5 mg/dL after cardiac [… read more]
Like many other bodily functions, coughing is a complex phenomenon that is under both conscious and unconscious control. Coughing during an acute bronchitis or after inhaling a lungful of seawater is vigorous and involuntary. A slight tickle in the back of the throat that creeps up when we’re on a first date or in a [… read more]
Image: EIMJM.com Evidence-based practice guidelines adopted by critical care societies in Canada, Germany, Australia and New Zealand recommend starting enteral nutrition for critical illness shortly after admission to an ICU. In observational studies, critically ill adults get only about 50-70% their caloric goals from enteral feeding; reduced gastric motility is often responsible for the limited [… read more]
The content previously here was removed at the request of the American College of Chest Physicians. For the ACCP 9th edition clinical practice guidelines for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), please visit the ACCP website. PulmCCM is not affiliated with ACCP or Chest.
Caring For Older Folks With COPD Terri Fried, Carlos Fragoso, and Michael Rabow argue in the September 26, 2012 JAMA that older adults (age ~80 or above) with COPD and significant dyspnea are a distinct, complex group of patients with unique features and needs, and their doctors should think broadly and be willing to go [… read more]
Chronic cough is the scourge both of the coughers themselves, and the doctors who treat them. Although rarely medically serious, chronic cough can be surprisingly debilitating by disrupting sufferers’ social and professional lives. Doctors, for their part, often feel frustrated and powerless in treating chronic cough. Although gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), asthma, ACE inhibitor use, [… read more]
The content previously here was removed at the request of the American College of Chest Physicians. For the ACCP 9th edition clinical practice guidelines for prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), please visit the ACCP website. PulmCCM is not affiliated with ACCP or Chest.
Anemia in the ICU: Review and Update (More PulmCCM Topic Updates) This document will be updated periodically to incorporate new research findings. To suggest an article for inclusion, please comment below. Anemia is almost inevitable during many episodes of critical illness, and has been associated with worsened outcomes and prognosis. However, the preponderance of evidence suggests that correcting anemia [… read more]
Ultrasound Case 2: Discussion (Back to Case 2) (See All Ultrasound Cases) Case2: Left lower quadrant scan. Case2: Left subcostal coronal scan. Dilated, fluid filled stomach and fluid filled bowel loops. The ultrasound exam revealed a few B lines at the left lung base, and a diaphragm located quite high on the left, almost in [… read more]
Hypertonic Saline & Mannitol for Raised Intracranial Pressure (More PulmCCM Topic Updates) Acute brain injuries of all sorts increase the pressure inside the skull (intracranial pressure). Traumatic brain injury, bleeding in or around the brain, severe ischemic stroke, and acute hepatic failure all raise intracranial pressure, and increased intracranial pressure often becomes the most severe [… read more]
Definition of Severe Sepsis by the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines Severe sepsis is sepsis (known or suspected infection with systemic manifestations of sepsis) along with sepsis-related tissue hypoperfusion or organ dysfunction. Organ dysfunction or tissue hypoperfusion are defined by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign as any of the below signs or findings: Signs of Severe Sepsis: Organ [… read more]
Surviving Sepsis Guidelines’ Criteria for Sepsis Diagnosis See all the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines PulmCCM is not affiliated with the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines or the Surviving Sepsis Campaign which is at http://www.survivingsepsis.org. According to the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines, a sepsis diagnosis requires the presence of infection, which can be proven or suspected, and 2 or more of [… read more]
The FDA announced earlier this month that it granted approval to 10 generic manufacturers to produce and market generic forms of montelukast, sold by Merck since its approval in 1998 as Singulair. Brand-name Singulair currently costs about $168 per month, so cost competition could bring considerable savings to those taking the medication (and their insurance [… read more]
(image: Wikipedia) As one after another specialty society endorses routine lung cancer screening with chest CT scans, we all know a Nodule Storm is coming to a pulmonology clinic near you. Thankfully, smart people are asking how we can systematically and successfully handle this soon-to-be-common outpatient clinical problem. Most of these many thousands of nodules [… read more]
Have you seen EMCrit.org? It’s the brainchild of Scott Weingart, an ED intensivist in New York City. ED docs like to do things (not just debate and deconstruct them endlessly like us pulmonologist-intensivists). In that spirit, Scott’s site is in my opinion more practical, “virtual-hands-on,” and skills/procedure-based than PulmCCM.org. Here’s a great example — his [… read more]
When it comes to airway management skills, muscle memory rules, and there’s no substitute for hands-on experience. But in between intubations and endotracheal tube changes, what’s the best way to bolster your skills and knowledge base? Reading textbooks and journal articles provides truthful information, but I suspect it gets filed away and stashed in your [… read more]
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) might be the perfect disease to describe the American health care system. The condition is overwhelmingly due to our over-indulgence and under-activity; its expensive diagnosis (polysomnography) and best treatment (CPAP) help physicians and device manufacturers prosper while consternating those who pay (the government and insurance companies), who then threaten to cut off [… read more]
Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) This review document is periodically updated and reposted as new information is published. Please comment below with your suggestions for inclusion in upcoming updates of this review. (More PulmCCM topic reviews) The diagnosis and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is rapidly evolving, [… read more]
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