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ImportanceIn nonurban areas with limited access to thrombectomy-capable centers, optimal prehospital transport strategies in patients with suspected large-vessel occlusion stroke are unknown.ObjectiveTo determine whether, in nonurban areas, direct transport to a thrombectomy-capable center is beneficial compared with transport to the closest local stroke center.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsMulticenter, population-based, cluster-randomized trial including 1401 patients with suspected acute large-vessel occlusion stroke attended by emergency medical services in areas where the closest local stroke center was not capable of performing thrombectomy in Catalonia, Spain, between March 2017 and June 2020. The date of final follow-up was September 2020.InterventionsTransportation to a thrombectomy-capable center (n = 688) or the closest local stroke center (n = 713).Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary outcome was disability at 90 days based on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS; scores range from 0 [no symptoms] to 6 [death]) in the target population of patients with ischemic stroke. There were 11 secondary outcomes, including rate of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator administration and thrombectomy in the target population and 90-day mortality in the safety population of all randomized patients.ResultsEnrollment was halted for futility following a second interim analysis. The 1401 enrolled patients were included in the safety analysis, of whom 1369 (98%) consented to participate and were included in the as-randomized analysis (56% men; median age, 75 [IQR, 65-83] years; median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, 17 [IQR, 11-21]); 949 (69%) comprised the target ischemic stroke population included in the primary analysis. For the primary outcome in the target population, median mRS score was 3 (IQR, 2-5) vs 3 (IQR, 2-5) (adjusted common odds ratio [OR], 1.03; 95% CI, 0.82-1.29). Of 11 reported secondary outcomes, 8 showed no significant difference. Compared with patients first transported to local stroke centers, patients directly transported to thrombectomy-capable centers had significantly lower odds of receiving intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (in the target population, 229/482 [47.5%] vs 282/467 [60.4%]; OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.45-0.76) and significantly higher odds of receiving thrombectomy (in the target population, 235/482 [48.8%] vs 184/467 [39.4%]; OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.13-1.89). Mortality at 90 days in the safety population was not significantly different between groups (188/688 [27.3%] vs 194/713 [27.2%]; adjusted hazard ratio, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.79-1.18).Conclusions and RelevanceIn nonurban areas in Catalonia, Spain, there was no significant difference in 90-day neurological outcomes between transportation to a local stroke center vs a thrombectomy-capable referral center in patients with suspected large-vessel occlusion stroke. These findings require replication in other settings.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02795962

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347, Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care Nurses, Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score < 19, ICU stay > 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine hospital services globally. This study estimated the total number of adult elective operations that would be cancelled worldwide during the 12 weeks of peak disruption due to COVID-19. Methods: A global expert response study was conducted to elicit projections for the proportion of elective surgery that would be cancelled or postponed during the 12 weeks of peak disruption. A Bayesian β-regression model was used to estimate 12-week cancellation rates for 190 countries. Elective surgical case-mix data, stratified by specialty and indication (surgery for cancer versus benign disease), were determined. This case mix was applied to country-level surgical volumes. The 12-week cancellation rates were then applied to these figures to calculate the total number of cancelled operations. Results: The best estimate was that 28 404 603 operations would be cancelled or postponed during the peak 12 weeks of disruption due to COVID-19 (2 367 050 operations per week). Most would be operations for benign disease (90·2 per cent, 25 638 922 of 28 404 603). The overall 12-week cancellation rate would be 72·3 per cent. Globally, 81·7 per cent of operations for benign conditions (25 638 922 of 31 378 062), 37·7 per cent of cancer operations (2 324 070 of 6 162 311) and 25·4 per cent of elective caesarean sections (441 611 of 1 735 483) would be cancelled or postponed. If countries increased their normal surgical volume by 20 per cent after the pandemic, it would take a median of 45 weeks to clear the backlog of operations resulting from COVID-19 disruption. Conclusion: A very large number of operations will be cancelled or postponed owing to disruption caused by COVID-19. Governments should mitigate against this major burden on patients by developing recovery plans and implementing strategies to restore surgical activity safely.

In the original publication Dr Patrick Meybohm of the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, Frankfurt University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany was inadvertently omitted from the list of investigators.

PURPOSE: To determine clinical predictors associated with corticosteroid administration and its association with ICU mortality in critically ill patients with severe influenza pneumonia. METHODS: Secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study of critically ill patients with confirmed influenza pneumonia admitted to 148 ICUs in Spain between June 2009 and April 2014. Patients who received corticosteroid treatment for causes other than viral pneumonia (e.g., refractory septic shock and asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] exacerbation) were excluded. Patients with corticosteroid therapy were compared with those without corticosteroid therapy. We use a propensity score (PS) matching analysis to reduce confounding factors. The primary outcome was ICU mortality. Cox proportional hazards and competing risks analysis was performed to assess the impact of corticosteroids on ICU mortality. RESULTS: A total of 1846 patients with primary influenza pneumonia were enrolled. Corticosteroids were administered in 604 (32.7%) patients, with methylprednisolone the most frequently used corticosteroid (578/604 [95.7%]). The median daily dose was equivalent to 80 mg of methylprednisolone (IQR 60-120) for a median duration of 7 days (IQR 5-10). Asthma, COPD, hematological disease, and the need for mechanical ventilation were independently associated with corticosteroid use. Crude ICU mortality was higher in patients who received corticosteroids (27.5%) than in patients who did not receive corticosteroids (18.8%, p

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that sleep deprivation associated with night-time working may adversely affect performance resulting in a reduction in the safety of surgery and anaesthesia. OBJECTIVE: Our primary objective was to evaluate an association between nonelective night-time surgery and in-hospital mortality. We hypothesised that urgent surgery performed during the night was associated with higher in-hospital mortality and also an increase in the duration of hospital stay and the number of admissions to critical care. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. This is a secondary analysis of a large database related to perioperative care and outcome (European Surgical Outcome Study). SETTING: Four hundred and ninety-eight hospitals in 28 European countries. PATIENTS: Men and women older than 16 years who underwent nonelective, noncardiac surgery were included according to time of the procedure. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome was in-hospital mortality; the secondary outcome was the duration of hospital stay and critical care admission. RESULTS: Eleven thousand two hundred and ninety patients undergoing urgent surgery were included in the analysis with 636 in-hospital deaths (5.6%). Crude mortality odds ratios (ORs) increased sequentially from daytime [426 deaths (5.3%)] to evening [150 deaths (6.0%), OR 1.14; 95% confidence interval 0.94 to 1.38] to night-time [60 deaths (8.3%), OR 1.62; 95% confidence interval 1.22 to 2.14]. Following adjustment for confounding factors, surgery during the evening (OR 1.09; 95% confidence interval 0.91 to 1.31) and night (OR 1.20; 95% confidence interval 0.9 to 1.6) was not associated with an increased risk of postoperative death. Admittance rate to an ICU increased sequentially from daytime [891 (11.1%)], to evening [347 (13.8%)] to night time [149 (20.6%)]. CONCLUSION: In patients undergoing nonelective urgent noncardiac surgery, in-hospital mortality was associated with well known risk factors related to patients and surgery, but we did not identify any relationship with the time of day at which the procedure was performed., BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that sleep deprivation associated with night-time working may adversely affect performance resulting in a reduction in the safety of surgery and anaesthesia. OBJECTIVE: Our primary objective was to evaluate an association between nonelective night-time surgery and in-hospital mortality. We hypothesised that urgent surgery performed during the night was associated with higher in-hospital mortality and also an increase in the duration of hospital stay and the number of admissions to critical care. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. This is a secondary analysis of a large database related to perioperative care and outcome (European Surgical Outcome Study). SETTING: Four hundred and ninety-eight hospitals in 28 European countries. PATIENTS: Men and women older than 16 years who underwent nonelective, noncardiac surgery were included according to time of the procedure. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome was in-hospital mortality; the secondary outcome was the duration of hospital stay and critical care admission. RESULTS: Eleven thousand two hundred and ninety patients undergoing urgent surgery were included in the analysis with 636 in-hospital deaths (5.6%). Crude mortality odds ratios (ORs) increased sequentially from daytime [426 deaths (5.3%)] to evening [150 deaths (6.0%), OR 1.14; 95% confidence interval 0.94 to 1.38] to night-time [60 deaths (8.3%), OR 1.62; 95% confidence interval 1.22 to 2.14]. Following adjustment for confounding factors, surgery during the evening (OR 1.09; 95% confidence interval 0.91 to 1.31) and night (OR 1.20; 95% confidence interval 0.9 to 1.6) was not associated with an increased risk of postoperative death. Admittance rate to an ICU increased sequentially from daytime [891 (11.1%)], to evening [347 (13.8%)] to night time [149 (20.6%)]. CONCLUSION: In patients undergoing nonelective urgent noncardiac surgery, in-hospital mortality was associated with well known risk factors related to patients and surgery, but we did not identify any relationship with the time of day at which the procedure was performed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01203605.

Resumen Objetivo Describir la evolucion de las tasas nacionales de las infecciones urinarias relacionada con sonda uretral (IU-SU), asi como la de sus etiologias y marcadores de multirresistencia. Diseno Estudio observacional, prospectivo, de participacion voluntaria y multicentrico desde el 1 de abril al 30 de junio entre los anos 2005 y 2010. Ambito Unidades de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI) que participaron en el registro ENVIN-UCI en el periodo de estudio. Pacientes Se han incluido todos los pacientes ingresados en las UCI participantes y portadores de sonda urinaria durante mas de 24 horas (78.863 pacientes) Intervencion La vigilancia de los pacientes ha sido continua hasta el alta de UCI o un maximo de 60 dias. Variables de interes Se han definido las IU-SU siguiendo los criterios del CDC y su frecuencia se expresa como densidad de incidencia (DI) en relacion al numero de dias de paciente-SU. Resultados Han presentado una o mas IU-SU 2.329 (2,95%) pacientes. La DI de IU-SU ha disminuido desde 6,69 a 4,18 episodios por 1.000 dias de SU desde el ano 2005 al ano 2010 (p Conclusiones Disminucion de las tasas de IU-SU, manteniendose la misma distribucion de etiologia e incrementandose las resistencia en los BGN, en especial el E. coli y P. aeruginosa.

BACKGROUND: Despite wide use of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in several clinical settings, the beneficial effects of NIV in patients with hypoxemic acute respiratory failure (ARF) due to influenza infection remain controversial. The aim of this study was to identify the profile of patients with risk factors for NIV failure using chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) analysis and to determine whether NIV failure is associated with ICU mortality. METHODS: This work was a secondary analysis from prospective and observational multi-center analysis in critically ill subjects admitted to the ICU with ARF due to influenza infection requiring mechanical ventilation. Three groups of subjects were compared: (1) subjects who received NIV immediately after ICU admission for ARF and then failed (NIV failure group); (2) subjects who received NIV immediately after ICU admission for ARF and then succeeded (NIV success group); and (3) subjects who received invasive mechanical ventilation immediately after ICU admission for ARF (invasive mechanical ventilation group). Profiles of subjects with risk factors for NIV failure were obtained using CHAID analysis. RESULTS: Of 1,898 subjects, 806 underwent NIV, and 56.8% of them failed. Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, infiltrates in chest radiograph, and ICU mortality (38.4% vs 6.3%) were higher (P < .001) in the NIV failure than in the NIV success group. SOFA score was the variable most associated with NIV failure, and 2 cutoffs were determined. Subjects with SOFA ≥ 5 had a higher risk of NIV failure (odds ratio = 3.3, 95% CI 2.4-4.5). ICU mortality was higher in subjects with NIV failure (38.4%) compared with invasive mechanical ventilation subjects (31.3%, P = .018), and NIV failure was associated with increased ICU mortality (odds ratio = 11.4, 95% CI 6.5-20.1). CONCLUSIONS: An automatic and non-subjective algorithm based on CHAID decision-tree analysis can help to define the profile of patients with different risks of NIV failure, which might be a promising tool to assist in clinical decision making to avoid the possible complications associated with NIV failure.

Resumen Objetivo Estudiar el impacto en la mortalidad y morbilidad en pacientes criticos de las bacteriemias primarias (BP) y relacionadas con cateteres intravasculares (BRC) causadas por Staphylococcus coagulasa negativo (SCN). Diseno Doble analisis con datos del registro ENVIN-HELICS (1997 a 2008): 1) analizar las caracteristicas clinicas de pacientes con BP/BRC causadas por SCN, comparandolas con las de los pacientes con BP/BRC causadas por otros patogenos; y 2) analizar mediante un estudio casos-controles (1:4) el impacto de BP/BRC por SCN en pacientes sin otras infecciones nosocomiales frente a pacientes sin ninguna infeccion nosocomial. Ambito Ciento sesenta y siete UCI espanolas. Pacientes Pacientes ingresados en UCI mas de 24 horas. Intervencion Ninguna. Variables de interes Estancia en UCI y mortalidad. Resultados Dos mil doscientos cincuenta y dos pacientes presentaron BP/BRC de los que 1.133 casos fueron por SCN. La mortalidad de los pacientes con BP/BRC causadas por patogenos distintos de SCN fue superior (29,8% vs. 25,9%; p = 0,039), debido exclusivamente a la mortalidad de pacientes con candidemia (mortalidad: 45,9%). En pacientes sin otras infecciones nosocomiales, la BP/BRC por SCN (414 pacientes) es un factor independiente de riesgo de tener una estancia superior a la media (OR 5,81; IC 95%: 4,31-7,82; p Conclusion La mortalidad cruda de los pacientes que padecieron BP/BRC causada por SCN es similar a la de los pacientes con BP/BRC causada por otras bacterias, pero inferior a la de los pacientes con candidemia. Comparandolo con la estancia en UCI de pacientes sin infecciones nosocomiales, la BP/BRC por SCN es un factor apreciable de prolongacion de estancia.