Development of an electronic Poor Outcome Screening (ePOS) Score to identify critically ill patients with potential palliative care needs.

PURPOSE: To develop and validate an electronic poor outcome screening (ePOS) score to identify critically ill patients with potentially unmet palliative care (PC) needs at 48 hours after ICU admission. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective single-centre cohort study of 1'772 critically ill adult patients admitted to a tertiary academic ICU in Switzerland between 2017 and 2018. We used data available from electronic health records (EHR) in the first 48 hours and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression to develop a prediction model and generate a score to predict the risk of all cause 6-month mortality. RESULTS: Within 6 months of the ICU admission, 598 patients (33.7%) had died. At a cut-off of 20 points, the ePOS score (range 0-46 points) had a sensitivity of 0.81 (95% CI 0.78 to 0.84) and a specificity of 0.51 (0.48 to 0.54) for predicting 6-month mortality and showed good discriminatory performance (AUROC 0.72, 0.67 to 0.77). CONCLUSIONS: The ePOS score can easily be implemented in EHR and can be used for automated screening and stratification of ICU patients, pinpointing those in whom a comprehensive PC assessment should be performed. However, it should not replace clinical judgement.

[Compassionate Cities: Strengthening Social Resources in Communities for Mutual Support at the End of Life]. / Compassionate Cities: Stärkung der sozialen Ressourcen in den Gemeinden für ein gemeinsam getragenes Lebensende.

Compassionate Cities: Strengthening Social Resources in Communities for Mutual Support at the End of Life Abstract. People at the end of life often wish to remain at home for as long as possible. To make this possible to a greater extent, not only health professionals who accompany those affected and their relatives are needed, but also educational programmes to strengthen health literacy at the end of life. Within the framework of the project "Compassionate City Lab of the Bernese People", experiences in dealing with the end of life were collected and published, and a course on advance care planning for elderly people was developed. The project is funded by Health Promotion Switzerland and supported by a partnership between Bernese institutions of higher education, specialised palliative care and primary care, the community, and volunteers in the city of Bern and the Bernese Oberland.

Serum procalcitonin, C-reactive protein and white blood cell levels following hypothermia after cardiac arrest: a retrospective cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to investigate time course of procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell (WBC) levels in patients with therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest. METHODS: We retrospectively assessed laboratory and clinical data in a consecutive cohort of patients admitted to the medical intensive-care-unit of the University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, in whom therapeutic hypothermia was induced because of cardiac arrest between December 2007 and January 2009. Infection was considered based on microbiological evidence (restricted definition) and/or clinical evidence of infection with prescription of antibiotics (extended definition). RESULTS: From 34 included patients, 25 had respiratory tract infection based on the clinical judgment and in 18 microbiological cultures turned positive (restricted definition). PCT concentrations were highest on the first day after hypothermia and showed a steady decrease until day 7 without differences in patients with and without presumed infection. CRP concentrations increased to a peak level at days 3-4 followed by a steady decrease; CRP concentrations were higher in patients with clinical diagnosis of infection on day 4 (P = 0.02); and in patients with evidence of bacterial growth in cultures on days 4 and 5 (P = 0.01 and P = 0.006). WBC remained unchanged after hypothermia without differences between patients with and without infection. CONCLUSION: High initial values of PCT and high peak levels after 3-4 days of CRP were found in patients with induction of hypothermia after cardiac arrest. This increase was unspecific and mirrors rather an inflammatory reaction than true underlying infection, limiting the diagnostic potential for early antibiotic stewardship in these patients.

Increased intraarticular pressure reduces blood flow to the femoral head.

Hemarthrosis leading to increased intracapsular pressure after an undisplaced femoral neck fracture is suspected to impair blood flow to the femoral head and may lead to osteonecrosis. We hypothesized that an increase of intraarticular pressure would reversibly decrease the blood flow to the femoral head. Eleven patients having surgical dislocations for treatment of femoroacetabular impingement were included in this study. Saline was injected into the intact intracapsular space while the blood flow to the femoral head was recorded using laser Doppler flowmetry. Injection of saline resulted in an increase in the intracapsular pressure. The injected volume of normal saline until disappearance of the pulsatile signal was on average 20 mL (range, 10-35 mL) with an average intraarticular pressure of 58 mm Hg (range, 25-88 mm Hg). Aspiration of the joint resulted in a return of the pulsatile flow. Hemarthrosis after undisplaced intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck are likely to cause an increase in intracapsular pressure. Decompression of the hematoma to reduce the intracapsular pressure is strongly advocated to optimize blood flow to the femoral head in acute fractures.