https://medicalxpress.com/critical-care-medicine-news/ en-us Latest medical news and research in Critical care medicine Clinicians often collect an endotracheal aspirate culture (EAC) from patients of all ages with breathing tubes to check mucus for signs of bacterial infection, a complication that can be deadly. Historically, however, clinical guidance about when and how often to take such cultures in children has been limited. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-decision-guidelines-safely-unnecessary-sick.html Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:20:08 EDT news706277101 In a thoughtfully designed adaptive clinical trial, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine physician-scientists demonstrated that the U.S. could triple or quadruple the supply of platelets available to help save patients who are bleeding, of all ages, and extend the life-saving therapy to rural regions and community hospitals. Platelets are the component of blood that encourages clotting, plugging cuts and tears in blood vessels and stemming blood loss. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-chilled-platelets-safely-lifesaving-patients.html Mon, 17 Aug 2026 11:00:03 EDT news705922201 Wearable sensors coupled with AI can generate blood pressure readings nearly as accurately as the invasive and risky arterial lines relied on in intensive care units and operating rooms, new work by Johns Hopkins University researchers demonstrates. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-wearable-sensors-ai-blood-pressure.html Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:00:06 EDT news706176122 People who have survived sepsis don't respond to vaccines in the same way as those who haven't had sepsis, according to new clinical trial results. The findings suggest more work is needed to understand why the vaccine-related immune response is altered in sepsis survivors so that vaccination programs can be tailored to reduce sepsis survivors' risk of infections and improve long-term health outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-sepsis-survivors-widely-varied-vaccine.html Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:40:03 EDT news705918264 Each year, more than 250,000 people in the United States experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Approximately 90% of patients do not survive. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-trial-focuses-duration-therapeutic-hypothermia.html Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:00:02 EDT news705248807 Researchers from RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found that an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled early warning system helped identify hospitalized patients at risk of rapid clinical decline sooner, contributing to fewer deaths among high-risk patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-ai-tool-patient-deterioration-earlier.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:00:01 EDT news704471341 Despite the best efforts of intensive care unit (ICU) staff and physicians and the most advanced life support, Dr. Bryan Yipp, witnesses many deaths in the ICU attributed to sepsis. "Sepsis is the body's overwhelming immune response to an infection, and sometimes that response can cause death," says Yipp, a critical care physician and clinician-scientist at the Cumming School of Medicine. "While many cases involve people with long-term illnesses, seemingly healthy people can be at work or home one moment and then, within hours, be admitted to the ICU." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-cellular-behavioromics-reveals-immune-cells.html Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:40:05 EDT news703863796 A study led by biomedical scientist Erica Heinrich at the University of California, Riverside, highlights a critical gap in how clinicians detect and treat breathing distress (dyspnea), particularly in patients on ventilators. The research is published in the journal Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-oxygen-severe-breathlessness-driven-carbon.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 17:00:01 EDT news702746063 For patients struggling to breathe because of acute respiratory failure, clearing mucus from the airways is a routine part of treatment. Mucoactive agents are widely used for this purpose. But after years of clinical use, one question remains: Do mucoactive agents actually help? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-common-mucus-treatments-dont-icu.html Thu, 02 Jul 2026 09:20:01 EDT news702201781 A simple bedside eye test may help predict recovery of consciousness in patients with severe brain injuries, according to new research presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2026. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-eye-recovery-consciousness-severe-brain.html Sat, 27 Jun 2026 18:10:03 EDT news701696581 New research, published in The Journal of Immunology, identifies biomarkers of a distinct immune profile that could be used to identify patients at risk for chronic critical illness (CCI) on admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) after traumatic injury. Identifying which patients are at increased risk for CCI could allow doctors to intervene earlier, leading to shorter ICU stays and improved patient outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-biomarkers-icu-patients-chronic-critical.html Thu, 25 Jun 2026 00:10:01 EDT news701519461 Cambridge researchers have shown that severe pneumonia has three different subtypes, helping explain why some patients in intensive care units (ICUs) recover from their illness faster than others, while for other patients the disease can be life-threatening. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-discovery-severe-pneumonia-subtypes-tailored.html Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:00:01 EDT news701340422 Remote monitoring isn't a panacea for reducing readmissions across all conditions—and for some patients, clinicians should proceed with caution, clinical trial results published in JAMA Network Open suggest. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-remote-readmissions-sepsis-trial.html Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:30:01 EDT news700302841 Combining clinical expertise and experience with the vast and ever-increasing knowledge of artificial intelligence has the potential to transform health care by providing earlier diagnoses and predicting outcomes. However, today's AI has inherent risks of error or overconfidence in a prediction. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-clinical-ai-confident.html Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:20:04 EDT news700143942 AI is already boosting positive outcomes in health care and holds promise for delivering many more. It is important, however, that deployment of AI tools—especially in a life-or-death health care setting—proceeds at a thoughtful and measured pace, cautions Shengpu Tang, assistant professor of computer science at Emory University. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ai-sepsis-inflate-results-overtreatment.html Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:40:03 EDT news699880623 A randomized clinical trial conducted across five countries in 47 pediatric emergency departments, including Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, established that both commonly used IV fluids for treating septic shock—balanced crystalloid fluid and 0.9% saline—are equally safe and effective. Results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-common-iv-fluids-equally-septic.html Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:40:03 EDT news699879721 A research team led by the University of Waterloo has created a new monitoring system to save lives and significantly reduce health-care costs in brain-injury cases through the early detection of infections in intensive care units. A paper on the work, A platform for near real-time and multiplexed monitoring of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and flow in neurocritical care, was published in Science Translational Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-real-brain-infections-earlier.html Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:20:02 EDT news699618481 A new Penn Nursing study suggests that the specific sedatives used during critical illness in early childhood may have long-term implications for a child's neurocognitive development. Martha A.Q. Curley, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Professor in the Department of Family and Community Health, and the Ruth M. Colket Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, co-led the study with R. Scott Watson, MD, from Seattle Children's Hospital. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-sedative-choice-pediatric-intensive-term.html Tue, 19 May 2026 19:20:01 EDT news698429641 Giving whole blood or the component parts of blood are equally effective options for paramedics and emergency medical technicians to use in treating patients with severe, traumatic bleeding before arriving at the hospital, according to a large, nationwide trial directed by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC clinicians and scientists. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-prehospital-trauma-flexible-option-blood.html Mon, 18 May 2026 15:10:02 EDT news698325241