Selective Decontamination Of The Digestive Tract Sdd

This book explains the basic concepts of Selective Decontamination of the Digestive tract (SDD) to help those involved in treating critically ill patients to improve outcomes and the quality of care. SDD has led to major changes in our understanding, the treatment and prevention of infections in critically ill patients over the past 40 years. It is the most studied intervention in intensive care medicine and is the subject of 73 randomized controlled trials, including over 15000 patients and 15 meta-analyses. SDD reduces morbidity and mortality, is cost-effective and safe as SDD does not increase antimicrobial resistance. Correct application of the SDD strategy enables ICU teams to control infections – even in ICUs with endemic antibiotic resistant microorganisms such as methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Describing the concept and application of SDD, and presenting case studies and microbiological flow charts, this practical guide will appeal to intensivists, critical care practitioners, junior doctors, microbiologists and ICU-nurses as well as infection control specialists and pharmacists.

Selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) is an antibiotic strategy which aims to prevent secondary infections in critically ill patients. In this book, intensive care physicians will find the answers to problems they encounter in daily practice concerning infection prevention by the use of SDD. Physicians who have not practiced the strategy so far, and wishing to start it, will find all the information they need for a successful SDD implementation.

Intensive care is a rapidly changing area of medicine, and after four years from the 2nd edition the volume editors and authors have deemed necessary to update it. In the recent years, in fact, five new randomised controlled trials and five new meta-analyses demonstrate that selective decontamination of the digestive tract [SDD] is an antimicrobial prophylaxis to prevent severe infections of not only lower airways but also of blood. Additionally, SDD has been shown to reduce inflammation including multiple organ failure and mortality. An intriguing observation is the evidence that SDD using parenteral and enteral antimicrobials reduces rather than increases antimicrobial resistance. Moreover, a new chapter on microcirculation had been added. The volume will be an invaluable tool for all those requiring in depth knowledge in the ever expanding field of infection control.

Selective decontamination is a technique which combines short-term and long-term antimicrobials to prevent or treat the acquisition and subsequent carriage of microorganisms causing late colonization and infections. The antimicrobials are selective in that they leave the indigenous, mostly anaerobic flora more or less intact, whilst the effective decontamination provides a genuine breakthrough in the endogenous route of pathogenesis. The improvements in decontamination techniques presented here offer significant reduction in infection related morbidity and mortality among trauma patients.

This case-based approach to the intensive care medicine curriculum provides 48 case studies linking core knowledge to clinical context. Topics chosen have been mapped to eight key areas of study, making this ideal for both FFICM and EDIC exam candidates.

Surgical Intensive Care Medicine has been specifically designed to be a practical reference for medical students and house officers to help manage the critically ill surgical patient. The first section is titled “Resuscitation” and exposes the reader to a condensed version of generic topics in primary intensive care medicine. The sections that follow have been categorized according to medical and surgical subspecialties and cover the most germane of problems encountered in a tertiary surgical intensive care unit. Sections of certain chapters, while repetitive, have been left intact in an attempt to maintain the authors' messages and provide the reader with some contradictory but referenced views. The technical chapters describe a very introductory approach to various exercises such as airway management and vascular cannulation.

The 2nd edition of this book describes the recent techniques, strategies, and drugs that have been demonstrated by multicenter randomized trials to influence survival in critically ill, defined as those who have acute failure of at least one organ, due to either a pathological condition or a medical intervention, and require intensive care treatment. Each chapter focuses on a specific procedure, device, or drug. The scope is accordingly wide, with coverage of topics as diverse as noninvasive mechanical ventilation, protective ventilation, prone positioning, intravenous salbutamol in ARDS, high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, mild hypothermia after cardiac arrest, daily interruption of sedatives, tranexamic acid, diaspirin cross-linked hemoglobin, albumin, growth hormone, glutamine supplementation, tight glucose control, supranormal oxygen delivery, and hydroxyethyl starch in sepsis. The topics selection was performed with the help of hundreds of specialists from dozens of countries; they expressed via web if they agreed or not with these topics and if they used them in their daily clinical practice. The clear text is supported by "how to do" sections and "key point" boxes that provide easily accessible practical information. Written by acknowledged international experts, Reducing Mortality in Critically Ill Patients is of interest for a wide variety of specialists, including intensivists, emergency doctors, and anesthesiologists.