Sepsis results in more than 250,000 deaths each year in the United States. Resuscitation of the septic patient centers on timely recognition, early antibiotic administration, appropriate fluid administration, source control, and vasopressor administration for those with inadequate mean arterial pressures. At present, norepinephrine is the recommended first-line vasopressor for sepsis. Current guidelines then recommend vasopressin as the second-line vasopressor agent, but the optimal timing of its initiation remains unknown. In this podcast, we discuss a recent article on the use of a machine learning tool for vasopressin administration to optimize short- and long-term outcomes in patients with sepsis.
Both etomidate and propofol are commonly used sedative agents in critically ill patients. Recent literature has suggested that these agents may result in increased...
Critically ill patients with acute hypoxic respiratory failure receive supplemental oxygen as a component of their treatment. In recent years, exposure to high levels...
Emergency physicians intubate critically ill patients daily. Unfortunately, up to 17% of ED intubations can be complicated by peri-intubation hypoxemia, hypotension, and cardiac arrest....