Mohammad Omar Faruq

Management of severe sepsis in patients admitted to Asian intensive care units: prospective cohort study.

Objectives To assess the compliance of Asian intensive care units and hospitals to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s resuscitation and management bundles. Secondary objectives were to evaluate the impact of compliance on mortality and the organisational characteristics of hospitals that were associated with higher compliance. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting 150 intensive care units in 16 Asian countries. Participants 1285 adult patients with severe sepsis admitted to these intensive care units in July 2009. The organisational characteristics of participating centres, the patients’ baseline characteristics, the achievement of targets within the resuscitation and management bundles, and outcome data were recorded. Main outcome measure Compliance with the Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s resuscitation (six hours) and management (24 hours) bundles. Results Hospital mortality was 44.5% (572/1285). Compliance rates for the resuscitation and management bundles were 7.6% (98/1285) and 3.5% (45/1285), respectively. On logistic regression analysis, compliance with the following bundle targets independently predicted decreased mortality: blood cultures (achieved in 803/1285; 62.5%, 95% confidence interval 59.8% to 65.1%), broad spectrum antibiotics (achieved in 821/1285; 63.9%, 61.3% to 66.5%), and central venous pressure (achieved in 345/870; 39.7%, 36.4% to 42.9%). High income countries, university hospitals, intensive care units with an accredited fellowship programme, and surgical intensive care units were more likely to be compliant with the resuscitation bundle. Conclusions While mortality from severe sepsis is high, compliance with resuscitation and management bundles is generally poor in much of Asia. As the centres included in this study might not be fully representative, achievement rates reported might overestimate the true degree of compliance with recommended care and should be interpreted with caution. Achievement of targets for blood cultures, antibiotics, and central venous pressure was independently associated with improved survival.

Structure, Organization, and Delivery of Critical Care in Asian Icus.

Objectives:Despite being the epicenter of recent pandemics, little is known about critical care in Asia. Our objective was to describe the structure, organization, and delivery in Asian ICUs. Design:A web-based survey with the following domains: hospital organizational characteristics, ICU organizational characteristics, staffing, procedures and therapies available in the ICU and written protocols and policies. Setting:ICUs from 20 Asian countries from April 2013 to January 2014. Countries were divided into low-, middle-, and high-income based on the 2011 World Bank Classification. Subjects:ICU directors or representatives. Measurements and Main Results:Of 672 representatives, 335 (50%) responded. The average number of hospital beds was 973 (SE of the mean [SEM], 271) with 9% (SEM, 3%) being ICU beds. In the index ICUs, the average number of beds was 21 (SEM, 3), of single rooms 8 (SEM, 2), of negative-pressure rooms 3 (SEM, 1), and of board-certified intensivists 7 (SEM, 3). Most ICUs (65%) functioned as closed units. The nurse-to-patient ratio was 1:1 or 1:2 in most ICUs (84%). On multivariable analysis, single rooms were less likely in low-income countries (p = 0.01) and nonreferral hospitals (p = 0.01); negative-pressure rooms were less likely in private hospitals (p = 0.03) and low-income countries (p = 0.005); 1:1 nurse-to-patient ratio was lower in private hospitals (p = 0.005); board-certified intensivists were less common in low-income countries (p < 0.0001) and closed ICUs were less likely in private (p = 0.02) and smaller hospitals (p < 0.001). Conclusions:This survey highlights considerable variation in critical care structure, organization, and delivery in Asia, which was related to hospital funding source and size, and country income. The lack of single and negative-pressure rooms in many Asian ICUs should be addressed before any future pandemic of severe respiratory illness.

Erratum to: Withholding and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments in low-middle-income versus high-income Asian countries and regions

Purpose To compare the attitudes of physicians towards withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments in intensive care units (ICUs) in low-middle-income Asian countries and regions with those in high-income ones, and to explore differences in the role of families and surrogates, legal risks, and financial considerations between these countries and regions.

Haemodynamically Unstable Acute Kidney Injury Patients Treated with Sustained Low Efficiency Dialysis: Outcome in an ICU of Bangladesh

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a risk factor for increased mortality in critically ill patients. Sustained low efficiency dialysis (SLED) is a new approach in renal replacement therapy (RRT) and it combines the advantages of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) and intermittent haemodialysis (HD). The study was aimed to evaluate the outcome of the hae-modynamically unstable patients with AKI in Bangladesh who were treated with SLED. So far this is the first reported study on SLED in intensive care unit (ICU) in Bangladesh. This quasi-experimental study was conducted in a 10-bed adult ICU of a tertiary care hospital in Bangladesh from June 2012 to May 2013. A total of 153 sessions of SLED were performed on 43 AKI patients. Mean age of the patients was 60.12 ± 15.57 years with male preponder-ance (67.4% were male). Mean APACHE II score was 26.88 ± 6.25. Fourteen patients (32.55%) had de novo AKI. Twenty nine patients (67.4%) had chronic kidney disease (CKD) with baseline mean serum creatinine 2.56 mg/dl, but did not require any RRT before admis-sion in ICU. After giving SLED, AKI of the study patients were completely resolved in 27.9%. Some forty two percent patients became dialysis dependant and 30.23% patients died. Patients who had AKI on CKD became dialysis dependant more often than the patients with de novo AKI (p 0.05). Thus, SLED is an excellent renal replacement therapy for the haemodynamically unstable AKI patients of ICU. It is also cost-effective compared to CRRT.

Antibiotic Resistance Pattern among Bacteria causing Ventilator Associated Pneumonia in An Intensive Care Unit of Bangladesh

Background : Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most common type of nosocomial infection in critical care practice with high morbidity and mortality. Microorganisms responsible for VAP vary from place to place. So, identification of causative organism and knowledge of their resistance pattern is very important for empirical choice of antibiotic in managing VAP. The aim of this survey was to evaluate the quantitative cultures of endotracheal aspirates to determine the microorganisms responsible for VAP and to study their antibiotic resistance pattern. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was performed over a period of six month starting from November, 2015 to April, 2016 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of BIRDEM General Hospital. Patients with a clinical and radiological diagnosis of VAP were included in this study. Result: A total of 51 patients with a clinical diagnosis of VAP were included in this study. Growth was obtained in100% of the samples yielding 88 organisms. Gram-negative organisms were the mostly isolated organism (76.13%), followed by fungi (17.04%) and gram-positive cocci (6.81%). The most common pathogen was Acinetobacter sp. followed by Klebsiella sp., Candida sp. and Pseudomonas sp. respectively. Among the gram negative organisms, Acinetobacter sp., Klebsiella sp. and Pseudomonas sp. were highly resistant (>80%) to third generation cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones. Resistance to aminoglycosides (>68%) and imipenem (>60%) was also high. Resistance of Pseudomonas sp. to piperacillin-tazobactum was lower (18.2%) in comparison to Acinetobacter sp. and Klebsiella sp. All the Gram-negative organisms were 100% sensitive to colistin except proteus. Regarding gram-positive cocci,Staphylococcus aureus is 100% sensitive to netilmycin and vancomycin with variable resistance pattern to other antibiotics. Conclusion: Emergence of drug resistance against the microorganism causing VAP is a serious concern in most of the ICUs. A knowledge of antibiotic susceptibility pattern will avoid its irrational use in order to control the spread of infection and for proper management of VAP. Bangladesh Crit Care J September 2016; 4 (2): 69-73

Message from the President of BSCCM

Care Medicine of Bangladesh. The recognition of Critical Care Medicine (CCM) as a primary care specialty came first time in 1996 with the establishment of department of Critical Care Medicine at Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of BIRDEM General Hospital. Concept of establishment of CCM as an independent department did not gain much ground till now in spite of rapid growth in number of ICUs across the country during last several years. In 2007 CCM as a postgraduate specialty was approved by Ministry of Health, Government of Bangladesh and University of Dhaka.