Continuous Infusion of Piperacillin/Tazobactam in Septic Critically Ill Patients - a Multicenter Propensity Matched Analysis

The clinical efficacy of continuous infusion of piperacillin/tazobactam in critically ill patients with microbiologically documented infections is currently unknown. We conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study in 7 Portuguese intensive care units (ICU). We included 569 critically ill adult patients with a documented infection and treated with piperacillin/tazobactam admitted to one of the participating ICU between 2006 and 2010. We successfully matched 173 pairs of patients according to whether they received continuous or conventional intermittent dosing of piperacillin/tazobactam, using a propensity score to adjust for confounding variables. The majority of patients received 16g/day of piperacillin plus 2g/day of tazobactam. The 28-day mortality rate was 28.3% in both groups (p = 1.0). The ICU and in-hospital mortality were also similar either in those receiving continuous infusion or intermittent dosing (23.7% vs. 20.2%, p = 0.512 and 41.6% vs. 40.5%, p = 0.913, respectively). In the subgroup of patients with a Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II>42, the 28-day mortality rate was lower in the continuous infusion group (31.4% vs. 35.2%) although not reaching significance (p = 0.66). We concluded that the clinical efficacy of piperacillin/tazobactam in this heterogeneous group of critically ill patients infected with susceptible bacteria was independent of its mode of administration, either continuous infusion or intermittent dosing.

Modeling in-Hospital Patient Survival During the First 28 Days After Intensive Care Unit Admission: a Prognostic Model for Clinical Trials in General Critically Ill Patients

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to develop a model for estimating patient 28-day in-hospital mortality using 2 different statistical approaches. DESIGN: The study was designed to develop an outcome prediction model for 28-day in-hospital mortality using (a) logistic regression with random effects and (b) a multilevel Cox proportional hazards model. SETTING: The study involved 305 intensive care units (ICUs) from the basic Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) 3 cohort. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: Patients (n = 17138) were from the SAPS 3 database with follow-up data pertaining to the first 28 days in hospital after ICU admission. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The database was divided randomly into 5 roughly equal-sized parts (at the ICU level). It was thus possible to run the model-building procedure 5 times, each time taking four fifths of the sample as a development set and the remaining fifth as the validation set. At 28 days after ICU admission, 19.98% of the patients were still in the hospital. Because of the different sampling space and outcome variables, both models presented a better fit in this sample than did the SAPS 3 admission score calibrated to vital status at hospital discharge, both on the general population and in major subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Both statistical methods can be used to model the 28-day in-hospital mortality better than the SAPS 3 admission model. However, because the logistic regression approach is specifically designed to forecast 28-day mortality, and given the high uncertainty associated with the assumption of the proportionality of risks in the Cox model, the logistic regression approach proved to be superior.

Renal Replacement Therapy in Critically Ill Patients - What Modality Should We Choose?

A lesão renal aguda é uma complicação comum nas unidades de cuidados intensivos. A mortalidade do doente crítico que requer diálise é extremamente elevada, apesar dos avanços significativos dos cuidados prestados a estes doentes. Há várias décadas que se discute o tipo de modalidade dialítica a oferecer a estes doentes (continua ou intermitente) e os principais fatores que pesam na decisão clínica são os meios e a experiência do centro, bem como a condição clínica do doente. Vários estudos tentaram estabelecer a melhor abordagem ao doente crítico com lesão renal aguda e necessidade dialítica, em termos de sobrevida do doente e recuperação renal. Nesta revisão tentarei resumir as evidências disponíveis sobre este tema.

Implant Site Nexplanon Reaction?

Nexplanon (Schering-Plough Limited/Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited (MSD)) is a long active reversible contraceptive method that provides effective contraception for 3 years. It consists of a single, flexible, rod-shaped implant, containing 68 mg etonogestrel. It is 4 cm long, consists of an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, a non-absorbable material, and also contains 15 mg of barium sulfate, which makes it visible by X-ray. We describe a case of a 39-year-old woman who experienced a local reaction to the barium sulfate in Nexplanon. She was given medical treatment, but only the removal of the implant resolved the symptoms. After removal there was gradual improvement and 72 h later the patient was asymptomatic. Allergic reaction to barium sulfate is extremely rare: until now, there have only been two cases associated with Nexplanon described in the literature.