Critical Care News

A restrictive red blood cell transfusion threshold is safe in most clinical settings, and current banking practices of using standard-issue blood should be continued, according to AABB’s 2016 red blood cell transfusion clinical practice guidelines.

A joint policy statement released by the AAP’s Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine encouraged EDs to implement and standardize approaches to transitions of care — “handoffs” or “sign-outs” — spanning the entire continuum of acute pediatric patient care.

Younger women have a higher risk for stroke during pregnancy and up to 6 weeks postpartum compared with nonpregnant women, but older women do not, according to a recent study published in JAMA Neurology.

Patients reporting to the hospital with unintentional firearm-related injuries are more likely to have a history of violence, and may benefit from inclusion in a hospital-based violence prevention program, according to data published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Mechanical ventilation rates increased by 100% in patients with advanced dementia, but these rates were not linked with significant improvement in survival, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Patients who occupied the same hospital bed as a prior inhabitant who received antibiotics were at an increased risk for Clostridium difficile infection even if they did not receive antibiotics themselves, according to recent study results published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Patients who were treated for acute MI at high-performing hospitals showed improved survival benefits in the first 30 days and long term than those treated in low-performing hospitals, researchers found.

Tracheal intubation was associated with decreased survival to hospital discharge in children and adolescents with in-hospital cardiac arrest, according to findings published in JAMA.

Compared with the usual care, therapeutic hypothermia was associated with lower overall survival and favorable neurological survival in patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest, according to an observational study published in JAMA.

Shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma are acceptable medical diagnoses for child head trauma, according to multidisciplinary physician opinion.