Critical Care Reviews Newsletter

Welcome to the 566th Critical Care Reviews Newsletter, bringing you the best critical care research and open access articles from across the medical literature over the past seven days.

The highlights of this week's edition are randomised controlled trials comparing paroxetine or quetiapine combined with oxycodone vs oxycodone alone on ventilation during hypercapnia & levetiracetam versus fosphenytoin as a second-line treatment after diazepam for adult convulsive status epilepticus; systematic reviews and meta analyses on prognostic factors associated with mortality among patients receiving vv-ECMO for COVID-19 & the association of neurocritical care services with mortality and functional outcomes for adults with brain injury; and observational studies on transfusion practice in patients receiving vv-ECMO & emergency TAVI for acute heart failure due to severe aortic stenosis in critically ill patients.

There are also guidelines on point-of-care ultrasound & processed EEG-based monitoring to guide sedation; narrative reviews on biomarkers in sepsis & acute encephalopathy in children; editorials on personalized medicine in COVID-19 & existing challenges in paediatric critical care; and commentaries on a renaissance of glucocorticoids in critical care in the era of COVID-19 & lung-protective sedation.

If you only have time to read one review article this week, try this one on mechanical circulatory support devices and treatment strategies for right heart failure.

CCR23 - June 14th to 16th

Registration for the Critical Care Reviews Meeting 2023 opens on Monday October 17th at 7pm UTC+1. If you are interested in the latest major trials in critical care, this is the meeting for you. CCR22 attracted in-person delegates from 26 countries, so if you want to attend this small niche event, it's best to book early. For those who can't attend in-person, we will livestream the entire conference for free, ensuring equity of access to the latest scientific advances in our field. However, nothing quite beats the anticipation of being in Titanic Belfast to hear the results of the latest landmark trials presented for the first time and discussed in depth by an expert panel and audience.

PILOT Trial Results Livestream - Monday, October 24th

We're delighted to announce our next livestream will be the results presentation of the PILOT trial, a 2,250-patient cluster-randomized cluster-crossover trial comparing a lower SpO₂ target (90%; range 88-92%), an intermediate SpO₂ target (94%; range 92-96%), and a higher SpO₂ target (98%; range 96-100%) with regard to the outcome of days alive and free of invasive mechanical ventilation. As usual, this will be a full, free livestream including results, independent editorial, viewers questions and expert panel discussion. It is scheduled to start at 20:00 UTC+1. More details will follow over the coming days.

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