Hospital Medicine Alert – February 1, 2010
February 1, 2010
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Early Goal-directed Therapy for Sepsis
One-year mortality post-severe sepsis and septic shock was significantly reduced after implementation of an early goal-directed therapy protocol for sepsis in a large urban emergency department. -
To Prone or not to Prone ... That Is the Question
This multicenter, unblinded, randomized trial demonstrated that prone positioning was not associated with a mortality benefit in patients with ARDS, including subgroups with moderate and severe hypoxemia. -
Drug Compliance and Persistence — A Major Public Health Problem
Patients who adhered to prescribed anti-hypertensive medication experienced a significantly decreased risk of acute cardiovascular events, yet only 6 months after diagnosis, only 8.1% of patients were classified as having high adherence, 40.5% demonstrated intermediate adherence, and 51.4% demonstrated low adherence to prescribed medication regimens. -
Clostridium difficile Diarrheal Disease in Children
Do children < 1-year-old actually develop diarrhea due to C. difficile? What should be the patient age cutoff below which laboratories should reject any stools for C. difficile testing? How will the new state-of-the-art molecular tests influence the interpretation of results in children?