Why Physiology Is Never Enough: The Siren Song of Critical Care The MARCH Trial Critical Care Reviews Blog 8    |    July 12th, 2026  |   Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The Music Before the Rocks The Sirens did not lure sailors because they sang badly. They were dangerous because they sang beautifully. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus knows that the Sirens’ song will be irresistible. He does not pretend he is immune...

The Nothing-to-Lose Fallacy The COCA Trial Critical Care Reviews Blog 9    |    July 25th, 2026  |   Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The Machine To Build the Station Chris Hadfield was travelling at eight kilometres a second, 400 kilometres above the Earth. Beneath him, the planet raced silently past. Beside him waited fifteen years of engineering that would determine the future construction of the International Space Station. In...

VITAMIN C - A Love Story Vitamin C in Critical Illness Critical Care Reviews Blog 5    |    October 17th, 2025  |  Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Image: Shutterstock | Medical-R Vitamin C – A Love Story Every generation of clinicians inherits a remedy that seems to promise more than mere biology should allow. For our forebears at sea it was citrus, the difference between life and death on a latish eighteenth‑century deck. For...

Faith, Evidence and the Stars: The ANDROMEDA‑SHOCK‑2 Trial Capillary Refill Testing in Septic Shock Critical Care Reviews Blog 6    |    November 7th, 2025  |  Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Image: Shutterstock | Wirestock Creators “And yet it moves.” Galileo’s whispered defiance captured a paradox that has animated science for four centuries: belief colliding with observation, dogma yielding—slowly, sometimes...

The Last Drop The REMAP CAP Ivermectin for COVID-19 Trial The Science of Stopping Critical Care Reviews Blog 7    |    May 13th, 2026  |  Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Figure 1: Junius Brutus Stearns, Washington on his Deathbed, 1851. Oil on canvas  | Wikimedia. On the morning of December 14th, 1799, George Washington was not abandoned by medicine. He was surrounded by it. His physicians bled him repeatedly,...

The Etomidate Conundrum Etomidate for Rapid Sequence Intubation in the Critically Ill. Critical Care Reviews Blog 4    |    September 4th, 2025 Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. social                                                           Image: Shutterstock | JFontan The Etomidate Conundrum Induction for rapid sequence intubation (RSI) in the critically ill often feels like the swing of a...

Archive CCR Blog Image: Shutterstock / PeopleImages 2026 The Nothing-to-Lose Fallacy When everything seems lost, the temptation is to do more. More drugs. More interventions. More physiology. But is that instinct always right? Drawing on Chris Hadfield's remarkable spacewalk aboard the International Space Station and the landmark COCA trial, we explore a dangerous cognitive trap in critical care: the belief that a patient in cardiac arrest has "nothing to lose." Perhaps the opposite is true—they have everything to lose. In the highest-stakes emergencies, the discipline to trust...

Critical Care Reviews Blog Exploring the why of critical care trials Critical care trials are fascinating to ponder. Some report findings of benefit with the investigational intervention, many report an inconclusive answer or apparent lack of efficacy. Some report harm. This blog will explore the why of critical care trials - why was this intervention successful, why was this intervention ineffective, why was the trial drug harmful. Join us for a weekly in-depth exploration of the latest major critical care trials. Blog 1 will be released Monday, October 4th The REST Trial ECCO2R...

The REST Trial Ultra-Low Tidal Volume Ventilation & Extracorporeal CO2 Removal McNamee JJ, Gillies MA, Barrett NA, Perkins GD, Tunnicliffe W, et al. Effect of Lower Tidal Volume Ventilation Facilitated by Extracorporeal Carbon Dioxide Removal vs Standard Care Ventilation on 90-Day Mortality in Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure. The REST Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021;326(11):1013-1023 Critical Care Reviews Blog 1    |    October 4th, 2021  |  Rob Mac Sweeney social social social ...