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 An innovative inflatable repositioning device developed by researchers and clinicians at the University of Bath and Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust could significantly reduce the number of staff required to care for prone, ventilated patients, according to preliminary findings from a clinical trial. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-bathmat-trial-icu-workload-critically.html Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:20:04 EDT news705853562 Europe is in the grip of yet another deadly heat wave. Over 10,000 excess deaths were recorded during late June 2026 alone—and the toll keeps climbing. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-heatstroke-deadly-body-cools.html Mon, 10 Aug 2026 11:00:03 EDT news705572462 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 A nurse-led initiative at a New Jersey hospital reversed an upward trend of unplanned extubation rates in its medical intensive care unit (MICU) and maintained the improvement for five years, according to an article published in Critical Care Nurse (CCN). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-nurse-unplanned-extubations.html Mon, 03 Aug 2026 07:20:01 EDT news704954221 International guidelines developed with contributions from a Texas A&M University College of Nursing researcher confirm the importance of thoughtful intensive care unit (ICU) design and encourage the involvement of nurses in the process to improve workflow, safety and staff well-being. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-icu-guidelines-highlight-hospital-environments.html Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:20:04 EDT news704633641 The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms is increasingly under scrutiny. After all, they can already do a great deal, and even more is promised. But what exactly lies under the hood of an AI model? For some applications, that knowledge doesn't matter all that much. But doctors in the intensive care unit (ICU) have to make decisions that can ultimately be a matter of life and death. They want to know exactly how a risk assessment is constructed. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-doctors-ai.html Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:40:06 EDT news704552586 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 When a patient is admitted to a hospital emergency room with a life-threatening medical condition, the first order of business is to get that patient to a stable state. After that happens, it is standard medical practice for doctors to initiate what's known as a serious illness conversation, which gives both the physician and patient an opportunity to discuss goals of care, treatment and end-of-life wishes before a medical crisis makes those conversations impossible. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-ai-doctors-difficult-conversations-critically.html Wed, 22 Jul 2026 07:00:01 EDT news703920661 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 From the emergency department (ED) to the intensive care unit (ICU), a clear, collaborative admission process at a Tennessee hospital cut in half the time newly admitted critically ill patients waited to receive specialized care, even as they waited in the ED for an ICU bed to become available. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-collaborative-icu-admissions-ed.html Wed, 15 Jul 2026 17:20:03 EDT news703339921 A new national clinical trial is helping reshape the future of recovery research for critically ill patients, providing important new evidence about how rehabilitation and nutrition interventions should be delivered during severe illness and informing the next generation of research to improve ICU survivors' outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-trial-combined-nutrition-intervention-safe.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:20:01 EDT news703173858 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 People who've been severely injured in an accident might have a lower risk of death if doctors pump them full of vitamin C, a new evidence review says. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-iv-vitamin-boost-recuperation-trauma.html Tue, 07 Jul 2026 08:00:08 EDT news702626943 A noninvasive neuromodulation technology has received Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for reducing a dangerous narrowing of blood vessels in the brain that can follow a brain bleed from a ruptured aneurysm. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-aid-brain-recovery.html Tue, 07 Jul 2026 07:20:01 EDT news702624182 Patients experiencing life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) require quick action, diligent care and close monitoring as they receive insulin infusions and other medical interventions to bring their blood glucose and ketone levels back into balance. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-anion-gap-pragmatic-diabetic-ketoacidosis.html Thu, 02 Jul 2026 09:20:06 EDT news702201662 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 Doctors have few options for patients who develop a life-threatening lung condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. A frequent cause of death during the COVID-19 pandemic, ARDS occurs when an inflammatory cascade triggered by infection or injury leaks fluid into the lungs, crashing blood oxygen levels. Nearly 40% of people affected die. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-acute-respiratory-distress-syndrome-patients.html Wed, 01 Jul 2026 07:20:02 EDT news702101042 High doses of intravenous (IV) vitamin C may lower the risk of death and sepsis in trauma patients, as well as shorten hospital stays, a review of the available evidence published online in the journal BMJ Military Health suggests. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-high-dose-iv-vitamin-death.html Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:30:01 EDT news701939565 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 In a new clinical study from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, researchers and physicians at UC San Diego Health have found that by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), they could develop more timely and efficient assessments of care provided to patients with severe sepsis in the emergency department. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-leveraging-ai-resources-physicians-approach.html Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:00:05 EDT news701619361 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 Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-based patient monitoring system they say can identify signs of clinical deterioration earlier and more accurately than existing approaches. The system could help hospital staff intervene before a patient's condition becomes critical. Details are discussed in the International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-ai-vital-outperforms-threshold-icu.html Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:20:02 EDT news700921166 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