Eleven years impact of a stepwise educational program on healthcare associated infections and antibiotics consumption in an intensive care unit of a tertiary hospital in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Hospital acquired infections (HAI) and liberal use of broad-spectrum antibiotics are common in intensive care unit(ICU)s of low-middle income countries. We investigated the long-term association of a stepwise multifaceted educational program with the incidence of HAIs and antibiotics use in a Brazilian ICU. We also evaluated the program's cost impact. METHODS: We retrieved data from a prospective daily collected database of a twelve bedrooms ICU, all admitted patients within a period of eleven years were enrolled. FINDINGS: From 03/15/2007 to 09/11/2019, we admitted 3059 patients where 2406 (79%) survived the ICU stay. Median age was 51 years-old, and median SAPS3 was 53. The initial density of catheter related blood infection (4.3 events / 1000 patients-day), urinary tract infection (9.2 event / 1000 patients-day) and ventilator associated pneumonia (54.9 events / 1000 patients-day) felt during the observed period to (0.35 events / 1000 patients-day), (0 events / 1000 patients-day), and (1.5 events / 1000 patients-day) respectively. The days of antibiotic therapy also decreased from 797.9 days of therapy / 1000 patients day to 292.3 days of therapy / 1000 patients day. The total cost per patient also decreased. The adjusted mortality rate was steady during the studied period from 23.2% to 22.9%. INTERPRETATION: A stepwise multifaceted educational program is an effective way to reduce hospital-associated infections, improve the rational use of antibiotics, and reduce costs. This impact occurred in a long term, and is probably consistent.

Validation of a low-cost continuous renal replacement therapy dialysate fluid controller for experimental purposes.

BACKGROUND: Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) support is crucial for critically ill patients and it is underexplored in specific situations. Experimental CRRT offers a means to gain insights into these scenarios, but the prohibitive cost of CRRT machines limits their accessibility. This study aimed to develop and validate a low-cost and precise dialysate controller for experimental CRRT. RESULTS: Our results demonstrate a commendable level of precision in affluent flow control, with a robust correlation (R2 = 0.99) for continuous flow and a strong correlation (R2 = 0.95) for intermittent flow. Additionally, we observed acceptable agreement with a bias = 3.4 mL (upper limit 95% = 43.9 mL and lower limit 95% = - 37 mL) for continuous flow and bias = - 20.9 mL (upper limit 95% = 54 mL and lower limit 95% = - 95.7 mL) for intermittent flow, in this way, offering a precise CRRT dose for the subjects. Furthermore, we achieved excellent precision in the cumulative ultrafiltration net (UFnet), with a bias = - 2.8 mL (upper limit 95% = 6.5 mL and lower limit 95% = - 12 mL). These results remained consistent even at low affluent flow rates of 8, 12, and 20 mL/min, which are compatible with CRRT doses of 25-30 mL/kg for medium-sized animals. Moreover, the acceptable precision of our findings persisted when the dialysate controller was subjected to high filter dialysate chamber pressure for an extended duration, up to 797 min. CONCLUSIONS: The low-cost dialysate controller developed and tested in this study offers a precise means of regulating CRRT in experimental settings. Its affordability and accuracy render it a valuable instrument for studying CRRT support in unconventional clinical scenarios, particularly in middle-income countries' experimental ICU laboratories.

Adverse events leading to intensive care unit admission in a low-and-middle-income-country: A prospective cohort study and a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Adverse events (AE) are frequent in critical care and could be even more prevalent in LMIC due to a shortage of ICU beds and Human resources. There is limited data on how relevant AE are among the reasons for ICU admission, being all of which published by High-Income-Countries services. Our main goal is to describe the rate of adverse events-related ICU admissions and their preventability in a LMIC scenario, comparing our results with previous data. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study, during a one-year period, in two general ICUs from a tertiary public academic hospital. Our exposure of interest was ICU admission related to an AE in adult patients, we further characterized their preventability and clinical outcomes. We also performed a systematic review to identify and compare previous published data on ICU admissions due to AE. RESULTS: Among all ICU admissions, 12.1% were related to an AE (9.8% caused by an AE, 2.3% related but not directly caused by an AE). These ICU admissions were not associated with a higher risk of death, but most of them were potentially preventable (70.9% of preventability rate, representing 8.6% of all ICU admissions). The meta-analysis resulted in a proportion of ICU admissions due to AE of 11% (95% CI 6%-16%), with a preventability rate of 54% (95% CI 42%-66%). CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective cohort, adverse events were a relevant reason for ICU admission. This result is consistent with data retrieved from non-LMIC as shown in our meta-analysis. The high preventability rate described reinforces that quality and safety programs could work as a tool to optimize scarce resources.

Intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous tracheostomy: a phase IV cohort study / Traqueostomia percutânea guiada por ultrassom conduzida por intensivistas: um estudo de coorte de fase IV

ABSTRACT Objective: To describe, with a larger number of patients in a real-world scenario following routine implementation, intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous dilational tracheostomy and the possible risks and complications of the procedure not identified in clinical trials. Methods: This was a phase IV cohort study of patients admitted to three intensive care units of a quaternary academic hospital who underwent intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous tracheostomy in Brazil from September 2017 to December 2021. Results: There were 4,810 intensive care unit admissions during the study period; 2,084 patients received mechanical ventilation, and 287 underwent tracheostomy, 227 of which were performed at bedside by the intensive care team. The main reason for intensive care unit admission was trauma, and for perform a tracheostomy it was a neurological impairment or an inability to protect the airways. The median time from intubation to tracheostomy was 14 days. Intensive care residents performed 76% of the procedures. At least one complication occurred in 29.5% of the procedures, the most common being hemodynamic instability and extubation during the procedure, with only 3 serious complications. The intensive care unit mortality was 29.1%, and the hospital mortality was 43.6%. Conclusion: Intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous tracheostomy is feasible out of a clinical trial context with outcomes and complications comparable to those in the literature. Intensivists can acquire this competence during their training but should be aware of potential complications to enhance procedural safety.

RESUMO Objetivo: Descrever, com um número maior de pacientes em um cenário do mundo real após a implementação rotineira, a traqueostomia percutânea guiada por ultrassom conduzida por intensivistas e os possíveis riscos e complicações do procedimento não identificados em estudos clínicos. Métodos: Trata-se de estudo de coorte de fase IV de pacientes internados em três unidades de terapia intensiva de um hospital acadêmico quaternário que foram submetidos a traqueostomia percutânea guiada por ultrassom conduzida por intensivistas no Brasil de setembro de 2017 a dezembro de 2021. Resultados: Entre as 4.810 admissões na unidade de terapia intensiva durante o período do estudo, 2.084 pacientes receberam ventilação mecânica, e 287 foram submetidos a traqueostomia, 227 das quais foram realizadas à beira do leito pela equipe de terapia intensiva. O principal motivo para a admissão na unidade de terapia intensiva foi trauma, e para a realização de uma traqueostomia foi comprometimento neurológico ou incapacidade de proteger as vias aéreas. O tempo médio entre a intubação e a traqueostomia foi de 14 dias. Residentes de terapia intensiva realizaram 76% dos procedimentos. Ao menos uma complicação ocorreu em 29,5% dos procedimentos, sendo instabilidade hemodinâmica e extubação durante o procedimento as complicações mais comuns, com apenas três complicações graves. A mortalidade na unidade de terapia intensiva foi de 29,1%, e a mortalidade hospitalar foi de 43,6%. Conclusão: A traqueostomia percutânea guiada por ultrassom conduzida por intensivistas é viável fora do contexto de um estudo clínico com resultados e complicações comparáveis aos da literatura. Os intensivistas podem adquirir essa competência durante seu treinamento, mas devem estar cientes das possíveis complicações para aumentar a segurança do procedimento.

Association of fasting in the first 72 h of intensive care unit stay with outcomes of critically ill patients.

BACKGROUND: Whether fasting early in critical illness course is acceptable is not clear and high-quality data on this topic are lacking. To generate equipoise for future clinical trials and bring additional data to current literature, we compared outcomes of patients fasted during the first 72 h of intensive care unit (ICU) stay to patients receiving any nutrition support during this period. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of a medical ICU from a tertiary academic center in Brazil. Adult patients treated between November 2017 and February 2022 with an ICU length of stay of ≥5 days were included. Baseline and daily data were retrieved from the prospectively collected administrative database. We did 1:1 propensity score matching to compare patients fasting for at least 72 h with controls. Primary outcome was hospital mortality and secondary outcomes were other resources' use. RESULTS: During the study period, 1591 patients were cared for in this ICU, of which 998 stayed ≥5 days. After excluding readmissions and propensity score matching, 93 patients in the fasting group were matched to 93 controls. Hospital mortality was similar between fasting and matched control groups (odds ratio = 1.04; 95% CI = 0.56-1.94; P > 0.99). Secondary outcomes were not different between groups, including length of stay, days on mechanical ventilation, and incidence of new infections. CONCLUSION: Withholding nutrition support in the first 72 h of ICU stay was not associated with worse outcomes in this cohort of severe critically ill patients.

Intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous tracheostomy: a phase IV cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe, with a larger number of patients in a real-world scenario following routine implementation, intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous dilational tracheostomy and the possible risks and complications of the procedure not identified in clinical trials. METHODS: This was a phase IV cohort study of patients admitted to three intensive care units of a quaternary academic hospital who underwent intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous tracheostomy in Brazil from September 2017 to December 2021. RESULTS: There were 4,810 intensive care unit admissions during the study period; 2,084 patients received mechanical ventilation, and 287 underwent tracheostomy, 227 of which were performed at bedside by the intensive care team. The main reason for intensive care unit admission was trauma, and for perform a tracheostomy it was a neurological impairment or an inability to protect the airways. The median time from intubation to tracheostomy was 14 days. Intensive care residents performed 76% of the procedures. At least one complication occurred in 29.5% of the procedures, the most common being hemodynamic instability and extubation during the procedure, with only 3 serious complications. The intensive care unit mortality was 29.1%, and the hospital mortality was 43.6%. CONCLUSION: Intensivist-led ultrasound-guided percutaneous tracheostomy is feasible out of a clinical trial context with outcomes and complications comparable to those in the literature. Intensivists can acquire this competence during their training but should be aware of potential complications to enhance procedural safety.

Investigação da associação de dois oxigenadores em paralelo ou em série durante o suporte respiratório com oxigenação por membrana extracorpórea / Exploring the association of two oxygenators in parallel or in series during respiratory support using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

RESUMO Objetivo: Caracterizar as pressões, as resistências, a oxigenação e a eficácia da descarboxilação de dois oxigenadores associados em série ou em paralelo durante o suporte com oxigenação veno-venosa por membrana extracorpórea. Métodos: Usando os resultados de insuficiência respiratória grave em suínos associada à disfunção de múltiplos órgãos, ao modelo de suporte com oxigenação por membrana extracorpórea veno-venosa e à modelagem matemática, exploramos os efeitos na oxigenação, descarboxilação e pressões do circuito de associações de oxigenadores em paralelo e em série. Resultados: Testaram-se cinco animais com peso mediano de 80kg. Ambas as configurações aumentaram a pressão parcial de oxigênio após os oxigenadores. O teor de oxigênio da cânula de retorno também foi ligeiramente maior, mas o efeito na oxigenação sistêmica foi mínimo, usando oxigenadores com alto fluxo nominal (~ 7L/minuto). Ambas as configurações reduziram significativamente a pressão parcial de dióxido de carbono sistêmico. Como o fluxo sanguíneo na oxigenação por membrana extracorpórea aumentou, a resistência do oxigenador diminuiu inicialmente, com aumento posterior, com fluxos sanguíneos mais altos, mas pouco efeito clínico. Conclusão: A associação de oxigenadores em paralelo ou em série durante o suporte com oxigenação veno-venosa por membrana extracorpórea proporciona um modesto aumento na depuração da pressão parcial de dióxido de carbono, com leve melhora na oxigenação. O efeito das associações de oxigenadores nas pressões de circuitos extracorpóreos é mínimo.

ABSTRACT Objective: To characterize the pressures, resistances, oxygenation, and decarboxylation efficacy of two oxygenators associated in series or in parallel during venous-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. Methods: Using the results of a swine severe respiratory failure associated with multiple organ dysfunction venous-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support model and mathematical modeling, we explored the effects on oxygenation, decarboxylation and circuit pressures of in-parallel and in-series associations of oxygenators. Results: Five animals with a median weight of 80kg were tested. Both configurations increased the oxygen partial pressure after the oxygenators. The return cannula oxygen content was also slightly higher, but the impact on systemic oxygenation was minimal using oxygenators with a high rated flow (~ 7L/minute). Both configurations significantly reduced the systemic carbon dioxide partial pressure. As the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation blood flow increased, the oxygenator resistance decreased initially with a further increase with higher blood flows but with a small clinical impact. Conclusion: Association of oxygenators in parallel or in series during venous-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support provides a modest increase in carbon dioxide partial pressure removal with a slight improvement in oxygenation. The effect of oxygenator associations on extracorporeal circuit pressures is minimal.

Evaluation of eleven immunochromatographic assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection: investigating the dengue cross-reaction.

COVID-19 disease is spread worldwide and diagnostic techniques have been studied in order to contain the pandemic. Immunochromatographic (IC) assays are feasible and a low-cost alternative especially in low and middle-income countries, which lack structure to perform certain diagnostic techniques. Here we evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of eleven different IC tests in 145 serum samples from confirmed cases of COVID-19 using RT-PCR and 100 negative serum samples from blood donors collected in February 2019. We also evaluated the cross-reactivity with dengue using 20 serum samples from patients with confirmed diagnosis for dengue collected in early 2019 through four different tests. We found high sensitivity (92%), specificity (100%) and an almost perfect agreement (Kappa 0.92) of IC assay, especially when we evaluated IgG and IgM combined after 10 days from the onset of symptoms with RT-PCR. However, we detected cross-reactivity between dengue and COVID-19 mainly with IgM antibodies (5 to 20% of cross-reaction) and demonstrated the need for better studies about diagnostic techniques for these diseases.

Lung perfusion during veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in a model of hypoxemic respiratory failure.

BACKGROUND: Veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) provides blood oxygenation and carbon dioxide removal in acute respiratory distress syndrome. However, during ECMO support, the native lungs still play an important role in gas exchange, functioning as a second oxygenator in series with ECMO. The hypoxic vasoconstriction mechanism diverts regional blood flow within the lungs away from regions with low oxygen levels, optimizing ventilation/perfusion matching. ECMO support has the potential to reduce this adaptive pulmonary response and worsen the ventilation/perfusion mismatch by raising venous oxygen partial pressure. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of ECMO on regional pulmonary perfusion and pulmonary hemodynamics during unilateral ventilation and posterior lung collapse. METHODS: Five Agroceres pigs were instrumented, monitored and submitted to ECMO. We used the Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) to evaluate lung ventilation and perfusion in all protocol steps. Effects of ECMO support on pulmonary hemodynamics and perfusion involving two different scenarios of ventilation/perfusion mismatch: (1) right-lung selective intubation inducing collapse of the normal left lung and (2) dorsal lung collapse after repeated lung lavage. Data including hemodynamics, respiratory, lung perfusion/ventilation, and laboratory data over time were analyzed with a mixed generalized model using the subjects as a random factor. RESULTS: The initiation of ECMO support provided a significant reduction in Mean Pulmonary Artery Pressure (PAPm) in both situations of ventilation/perfusion mismatch. However, distribution of lung perfusion did not change with the use of ECMO support. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the use of ECMO support with consequent increase in venous oxygen pressure induced a significant drop in PAPm with no detectable effect on regional lung perfusion in different scenarios of ventilation/perfusion mismatch.

Exploring the association of two oxygenators in parallel or in series during respiratory support using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. / Investigação da associação de dois oxigenadores em paralelo ou em série durante o suporte respiratório com oxigenação por membrana extracorpórea.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the pressures, resistances, oxygenation, and decarboxylation efficacy of two oxygenators associated in series or in parallel during venous-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. METHODS: Using the results of a swine severe respiratory failure associated with multiple organ dysfunction venous-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support model and mathematical modeling, we explored the effects on oxygenation, decarboxylation and circuit pressures of in-parallel and in-series associations of oxygenators. RESULTS: Five animals with a median weight of 80kg were tested. Both configurations increased the oxygen partial pressure after the oxygenators. The return cannula oxygen content was also slightly higher, but the impact on systemic oxygenation was minimal using oxygenators with a high rated flow (~ 7L/minute). Both configurations significantly reduced the systemic carbon dioxide partial pressure. As the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation blood flow increased, the oxygenator resistance decreased initially with a further increase with higher blood flows but with a small clinical impact. CONCLUSION: Association of oxygenators in parallel or in series during venous-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support provides a modest increase in carbon dioxide partial pressure removal with a slight improvement in oxygenation. The effect of oxygenator associations on extracorporeal circuit pressures is minimal.

OBJETIVO: Caracterizar as pressões, as resistências, a oxigenação e a eficácia da descarboxilação de dois oxigenadores associados em série ou em paralelo durante o suporte com oxigenação veno-venosa por membrana extracorpórea. MÉTODOS: Usando os resultados de insuficiência respiratória grave em suínos associada à disfunção de múltiplos órgãos, ao modelo de suporte com oxigenação por membrana extracorpórea veno-venosa e à modelagem matemática, exploramos os efeitos na oxigenação, descarboxilação e pressões do circuito de associações de oxigenadores em paralelo e em série. RESULTADOS: Testaram-se cinco animais com peso mediano de 80kg. Ambas as configurações aumentaram a pressão parcial de oxigênio após os oxigenadores. O teor de oxigênio da cânula de retorno também foi ligeiramente maior, mas o efeito na oxigenação sistêmica foi mínimo, usando oxigenadores com alto fluxo nominal (~ 7L/minuto). Ambas as configurações reduziram significativamente a pressão parcial de dióxido de carbono sistêmico. Como o fluxo sanguíneo na oxigenação por membrana extracorpórea aumentou, a resistência do oxigenador diminuiu inicialmente, com aumento posterior, com fluxos sanguíneos mais altos, mas pouco efeito clínico. CONCLUSÃO: A associação de oxigenadores em paralelo ou em série durante o suporte com oxigenação veno-venosa por membrana extracorpórea proporciona um modesto aumento na depuração da pressão parcial de dióxido de carbono, com leve melhora na oxigenação. O efeito das associações de oxigenadores nas pressões de circuitos extracorpóreos é mínimo.