What every intensivist should know about..Patient safety huddles in the ICU.

Patient safety huddles are brief, multidisciplinary conversations that focus on a specific topic or event. Huddles have been shown to improve communication among healthcare providers in a variety of settings, including the intensive care unit (ICU). This paper presents key features of patient safety huddles and describes the ways in which huddle techniques may be particularly relevant to the practice of critical care.

Clarithromycin for early anti-inflammatory responses in community-acquired pneumonia in Greece (ACCESS): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Addition of macrolide antibiotics to ß-lactam antibiotics for the treatment of patients in hospital with community-acquired pneumonia is based on results from observational studies and meta-analyses rather than randomised clinical trials. We investigated if addition of the macrolide clarithromycin to treatment with a ß-lactam antibiotic in this population could improve early clinical response-the new regulatory endpoint for community-acquired pneumonia-and explored the possible contribution of modulation of the inflammatory host response to that outcome. METHODS: The ACCESS trial was a phase 3 prospective, double-blind, randomised controlled trial, in which adults in hospital with community-acquired pneumonia who had systemic inflammatory response syndrome, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score of 2 or more, and procalcitonin 0·25 ng/mL or more were enrolled in 18 internal medicine departments of public Greek hospitals. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) by computer-generated block randomisation to standard of care medication (including intravenous administration of a third-generation cephalosporin or intravenous administration of ß-lactam plus ß-lactamase inhibitor combination) plus either oral placebo or oral clarithromycin 500 mg twice daily for 7 days. Investigators, staff, and patients were masked to group allocation. The primary composite endpoint required that patients fulfilled both of the following conditions after 72 hours (ie, day 4 of treatment): (1) decrease in respiratory symptom severity score of 50% or more as an indicator of early clinical response and (2) decrease in SOFA score of at least 30% or favourable procalcitonin kinetics (defined as ≥80% decrease from baseline or procalcitonin <0·25 ng/mL), or both, as an indicator of early inflammatory response. Participants who were randomly assigned and received allocated treatment were included in the primary analysis population. This trial is complete and is registered with the EU Clinical Trials Register (2020-004452-15) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04724044). FINDINGS: Patients were enrolled between Jan 25, 2021, and April 11, 2023, and 278 individuals were randomly allocated to receive standard of care in combination with either clarithromycin (n=139) or placebo (n=139). 134 patients in the clarithromycin group (five withdrew consent) and 133 patients in the placebo group (six withdrew consent) were included in the analysis of the primary endpoint. The primary endpoint was met in 91 (68%) patients in the clarithromycin group and 51 (38%) patients in the placebo group (difference 29·6% [95% CI 17·7-40·3]; odds ratio [OR] 3·40 [95% CI 2·06-5·63]; p<0·0001). Serious treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) occurred in 58 (43%) patients in the clarithromycin group and 70 (53%) patients in the placebo group (difference 9·4% [95% CI -2·6 to 20·9]; OR 0·67 [95% CI 0·42 to 1·11]; p=0·14). None of the serious TEAEs was judged to be related to treatment assignment. INTERPRETATION: Addition of clarithromycin to standard of care enhances early clinical response and attenuates the inflammatory burden of community-acquired pneumonia. The mechanism of benefit is associated with changes in the immune response. These findings suggest the importance of adding clarithromycin to ß-lactams for treatment of patients in hospital with community-acquired pneumonia to achieve early clinical response and early decrease of the inflammatory burden. FUNDING: Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis and Abbott Products Operations.

Aspiration Pneumonia.

Aspiration pneumonia is a lower respiratory tract infection that results from inhalation of foreign material, often gastric and oropharyngeal contents. It is important to distinguish this from a similar entity, aspiration with chemical pneumonitis, as treatment approaches may differ. An evolving understanding of the human microbiome has shed light on the pathogenesis of aspiration pneumonia, suggesting that dysbiosis, repetitive injury, and inflammatory responses play a role in its development. Risk factors for aspiration events involve a complex interplay of anatomical and physiological dysfunctions in the nervous, gastrointestinal, and pulmonary systems. Current treatment strategies have shifted away from anaerobic organisms as leading pathogens. Prevention of aspiration pneumonia primarily involves addressing oropharyngeal dysphagia, a significant risk factor for aspiration pneumonia, particularly among elderly individuals and those with cognitive and neurodegenerative disorders.

ERS/ESICM/ESCMID/ALAT guidelines for the management of severe community-acquired pneumonia.

PURPOSE: Severe community-acquired pneumonia (sCAP) is associated with high morbidity and mortality, and whilst European and non-European guidelines are available for community-acquired pneumonia, there are no specific guidelines for sCAP. METHODS: The European Respiratory Society (ERS), European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), and Latin American Thoracic Association (ALAT) launched a task force to develop the first international guidelines for sCAP. The panel comprised a total of 18 European and four non-European experts, as well as two methodologists. Eight clinical questions for sCAP diagnosis and treatment were chosen to be addressed. Systematic literature searches were performed in several databases. Meta-analyses were performed for evidence synthesis, whenever possible. The quality of evidence was assessed with GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation). Evidence to Decision frameworks were used to decide on the direction and strength of recommendations. RESULTS: Recommendations issued were related to diagnosis, antibiotics, organ support, biomarkers and co-adjuvant therapy. After considering the confidence in effect estimates, the importance of outcomes studied, desirable and undesirable consequences of treatment, cost, feasibility, acceptability of the intervention and implications to health equity, recommendations were made for or against specific treatment interventions. CONCLUSIONS: In these international guidelines, ERS, ESICM, ESCMID, and ALAT provide evidence-based clinical practice recommendations for diagnosis, empirical treatment, and antibiotic therapy for sCAP, following the GRADE approach. Furthermore, current knowledge gaps have been highlighted and recommendations for future research have been made.

Management of pneumonia in the critically ill.

Pneumonias continue to be major public health issues and are commonly encountered in the intensive care setting. The most common types of pneumonia leading to critical illness include severe community acquired pneumonia, hospital acquired pneumonia, and ventilator associated pneumonia. Early evaluation, diagnosis, and escalation to appropriate levels of care are imperative to improving survival. Treatment remains challenging with the need to balance antibiotic stewardship and minimizing patient harm. As evidenced in the most recent society guidelines, the identification of risk factors for severe disease and the causative pathogens are crucial in guiding the most appropriate therapy.

Severe community-acquired pneumonia.

Severe community-acquired pneumonia is the most life-threatening form of community-acquired pneumonia, characterised by intensive care unit admission and high morbidity and mortality. In this review article, we cover in depth six aspects of severe community-acquired pneumonia that are still controversial: use of PCR molecular techniques for microbial diagnosis; the role of biomarkers for initial management; duration of treatment, macrolides or quinolones in the initial empirical antibiotic therapy; the use of prediction scores for drug-resistant pathogens to modify initial empiric therapy; the use of noninvasive mechanical ventilation and high-flow nasal oxygen; and the use of corticosteroids as adjunctive therapy in severe community-acquired pneumonia.

Aspiration pneumonia

The growing population of older people worldwide represents a great challenge for health systems. The elderly are atincreased risk of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, whichis associated with increased morbidity and mortality relatedmainly to age-related physiological changes in the immunesystem (immunosenescence), the presence of multiple chronic comorbidities, and frailty. In pneumonia, microaspiration isrecognized as the main pathogenic mechanism; while macroaspiration which refers to the aspiration of a large amountof oropharyngeal or upper gastrointestinal content passingthrough the vocal cords and trachea into the lungs is identified as “aspiration pneumonia”. Although there are strategiesfor the prevention and management of patients with pneumonia that have been shown to be effective in older people withpneumonia, more research is needed on aspiration pneumonia,its risk factors and outcomes, especially since there are no specific criteria for its diagnosis and consequently, the studies onaspiration pneumonia include heterogeneous populations.Keywords: pneumonia, aspiration, elderly (AU)

Risk Factors and Algorithms for the Empirical Treatment of Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia.

Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) continue to be major concerns for morbidity and mortality, especially in patients treated in the intensive care unit. With the rise in multidrug-resistant organisms, HAP and VAP treatment is challenged by the need for early appropriate treatment, with broad-spectrum agents, while still being aware of the principles of antibiotic stewardship. The two major society guidelines proposed a series of risk factors in their most recent guidelines to help identify patients who can most benefit from narrow- or broad-spectrum initial empiric antibiotic therapy. The guidelines reveal differences in the proposed risk factors and treatment approaches, as well as major similarities.

Infection control in the intensive care unit: expert consensus statements for SARS-CoV-2 using a Delphi method.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, health-care workers and uninfected patients in intensive care units (ICUs) are at risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 as a result of transmission from infected patients and health-care workers. In the absence of high-quality evidence on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, clinical practice of infection control and prevention in ICUs varies widely. Using a Delphi process, international experts in intensive care, infectious diseases, and infection control developed consensus statements on infection control for SARS-CoV-2 in an ICU. Consensus was achieved for 31 (94%) of 33 statements, from which 25 clinical practice statements were issued. These statements include guidance on ICU design and engineering, health-care worker safety, visiting policy, personal protective equipment, patients and procedures, disinfection, and sterilisation. Consensus was not reached on optimal return to work criteria for health-care workers who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 or the acceptable disinfection strategy for heat-sensitive instruments used for airway management of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Well designed studies are needed to assess the effects of these practice statements and address the remaining uncertainties.

Respiratory Infections and Anti-Infective Medication Use From Phase 3 Dupilumab Respiratory Studies.

BACKGROUND: Patients with asthma and/or chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) experience recurrent respiratory tract infections. Dupilumab targets type 2 inflammation, a common underlying pathophysiology of both conditions, with proven efficacy. OBJECTIVE: To examine investigator-reported respiratory infection adverse events and anti-infective medication use with dupilumab versus placebo in patients with moderate-to-severe asthma or severe CRSwNP. METHODS: We performed a post hoc analysis of the pivotal phase 3 trials LIBERTY ASTHMA QUEST (NCT02414854) and LIBERTY NP SINUS-52 (NCT02898454) in moderate-to-severe asthma and severe CRSwNP, respectively. RESULTS: Investigator-reported respiratory infection events occurred at a significantly lower incidence in patients treated with dupilumab versus placebo, in both asthma (22% lower; P < .0001; 95% CI 0.71-0.85) and CRSwNP (38% lower; P <.0001; 95% CI 0.51-0.75). Reported upper and lower respiratory tract infection events were numerically or significantly lower in dupilumab-treated patients in both conditions, as were the number of patients experiencing investigator-reported infections. Significantly less systemic anti-infective medication use occurred in dupilumab versus placebo in asthma (24% lower; P < .0001; 95% CI 0.70-0.83) and CRSwNP patients (49% lower; P < .0001; 95% CI 0.43-0.61), and significantly fewer dupilumab-treated patients used anti-infective medications. When examined by season and month, the data indicated that investigator-reported respiratory infections and anti-infective medication use were less frequent in dupilumab- versus placebo-treated patients throughout the calendar year. CONCLUSIONS: Dupilumab treatment was associated with a reduced incidence of investigator-reported respiratory infections in patients with moderate-to-severe asthma or severe CRSwNP. Further studies are required to determine the mechanism behind this reduction.

Management of pneumonia in critically ill patients.

Severe pneumonia is associated with high mortality (short and long term), as well as pulmonary and extrapulmonary complications. Appropriate diagnosis and early initiation of adequate antimicrobial treatment for severe pneumonia are crucial in improving survival among critically ill patients. Identifying the underlying causative pathogen is also critical for antimicrobial stewardship. However, establishing an etiological diagnosis is challenging in most patients, especially in those with chronic underlying disease; those who received previous antibiotic treatment; and those treated with mechanical ventilation. Furthermore, as antimicrobial therapy must be empiric, national and international guidelines recommend initial antimicrobial treatment according to the location's epidemiology; for patients admitted to the intensive care unit, specific recommendations on disease management are available. Adherence to pneumonia guidelines is associated with better outcomes in severe pneumonia. Yet, the continuing and necessary research on severe pneumonia is expansive, inviting different perspectives on host immunological responses, assessment of illness severity, microbial causes, risk factors for multidrug resistant pathogens, diagnostic tests, and therapeutic options.

Initial antimicrobial management of sepsis.

Sepsis is a common consequence of infection, associated with a mortality rate > 25%. Although community-acquired sepsis is more common, hospital-acquired infection is more lethal. The most common site of infection is the lung, followed by abdominal infection, catheter-associated blood steam infection and urinary tract infection. Gram-negative sepsis is more common than gram-positive infection, but sepsis can also be due to fungal and viral pathogens. To reduce mortality, it is necessary to give immediate, empiric, broad-spectrum therapy to those with severe sepsis and/or shock, but this approach can drive antimicrobial overuse and resistance and should be accompanied by a commitment to de-escalation and antimicrobial stewardship. Biomarkers such a procalcitonin can provide decision support for antibiotic use, and may identify patients with a low likelihood of infection, and in some settings, can guide duration of antibiotic therapy. Sepsis can involve drug-resistant pathogens, and this often necessitates consideration of newer antimicrobial agents.

Understanding the Host in the Management of Pneumonia. An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

Pneumonia causes a significant burden of disease worldwide. Although all populations are at risk of pneumonia, those at extremes of age and those with immunosuppressive disorders, underlying respiratory disease, and critical illness are particularly vulnerable. Although clinical practice guidelines addressing the management and treatment of pneumonia exist, few of the supporting studies focus on the crucial contributions of the host in pneumonia pathogenesis and recovery. Such essential considerations include the host risk factors that lead to susceptibility to lung infections; biomarkers reflecting the host response and the means to pursue host-directed pneumonia therapy; systemic effects of pneumonia on the host; and long-term health outcomes after pneumonia. To address these gaps, the Pneumonia Working Group of the Assembly on Pulmonary Infection and Tuberculosis led a workshop held at the American Thoracic Society meeting in May 2018 with overarching objectives to foster attention, stimulate research, and promote funding for short-term and long-term investigations into the host contributions to pneumonia. The workshop involved participants from various disciplines with expertise in lung infection, pneumonia, sepsis, immunocompromised patients, translational biology, data science, genomics, systems biology, and clinical trials. This workshop report summarizes the presentations and discussions and important recommendations for future clinical pneumonia studies. These recommendations include establishing consensus disease and outcome definitions, improved phenotyping, development of clinical study networks, standardized data and biospecimen collection and protocols, and development of innovative trial designs.