Existing capacity for renal replacement therapy and site-specific practices for managing acute kidney injury at centers participating in the BaSICS trial

Update on the Epimed Monitor Adult ICU Database: 15 years of its use in national registries, quality improvement initiatives and clinical research

In recent decades, several databases of critically ill patients have become available in both low-, middle-, and high-income countries from all continents. These databases are also rich sources of data for the surveillance of emerging diseases, intensive care unit performance evaluation and benchmarking, quality improvement projects and clinical research. The Epimed Monitor database is turning 15 years old in 2024 and has become one of the largest of these databases. In recent years, there has been rapid geographical expansion, an increase in the number of participating intensive care units and hospitals, and the addition of several new variables and scores, allowing a more complete characterization of patients to facilitate multicenter clinical studies. As of December 2023, the database was being used regularly for 23,852 beds in 1,723 intensive care units and 763 hospitals from ten countries, totaling more than 5.6 million admissions. In addition, critical care societies have adopted the system and its database to establish national registries and international collaborations. In the present review, we provide an updated description of the database; report experiences of its use in critical care for quality improvement initiatives, national registries and clinical research; and explore other potential future perspectives and developments.

Prioritization of ICU beds with renal replacement therapy support by court order and mortality in a Brazilian metropolitan area

The shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) resources, including equipment and supplies for renal replacement therapy (RRT), is a critical problem in several countries. This study aimed to assess hospital mortality and associated factors in patients treated in public hospitals of the Federal District, Brazil, who requested admission to ICU with renal replacement therapy support (ICU-RRT) in court. Retrospective cohort study that included 883 adult patients treated in public hospitals of the Federal District who requested ICU-RRT admission in court from January 2017 to December 2018. ICU-RRT was denied to 407 patients, which increased mortality (OR 3.33, 95% CI 2.39–4.56, p ≪ 0.01), especially in patients with priority level I/II (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.01–1.04, p ≪ 0.01). Of the requests made in court, 450 were filed by patients with priority levels III/IV, and 44.7% of these were admitted to ICU-RRT. In admitted patients, priority level III priority level I/II was associated with a low mortality (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.32–0.69, p < 0.01), and not. The admission of patients classified as priority levels III/IV to ICU-RRT considerably jeopardized the admission of patients with priority levels I/II to these settings. The results found open new avenues for organizing public policies and improving ICU-RRT triage.

Hypothermia related to continuous renal replacement therapy: incidence and associated factors

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the incidence of hypothermia in patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy in the intensive care unit. As secondary objectives, we determined associated factors and compared the occurrence of hypothermia between two modalities of continuous renal replacement therapy.

METHODS

A prospective cohort study was conducted with adult patients who were admitted to a clinical-surgical intensive care unit and underwent continuous renal replacement therapy in a high-complexity public university hospital in southern Brazil from April 2017 to July 2018. Hypothermia was defined as a body temperature ≤ 35ºC. The patients included in the study were followed for the first 48 hours of continuous renal replacement therapy. The researchers collected data from medical records and continuous renal replacement therapy records.

RESULTS

A total of 186 patients were equally distributed between two types of continuous renal replacement therapy: hemodialysis and hemodiafiltration. The incidence of hypothermia was 52.7% and was higher in patients admitted for shock (relative risk of 2.11; 95%CI 1.21 - 3.69; p = 0.009) and in those who underwent hemodiafiltration with heating in the return line (relative risk of 1.50; 95%CI 1.13 - 1.99; p = 0.005).

CONCLUSION

Hypothermia in critically ill patients with continuous renal replacement therapy is frequent, and the intensive care team should be attentive, especially when there are associated risk factors.