Outcomes of Mechanically Ventilated Critically Ill Geriatric Patients in Intensive Care Unit

Point-of-care ultrasound: a viable alternative for assessing ulnar neuropathy in rheumatoid arthritis?

Aim of the study

This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of ultrasound measurements of the ulnar nerve cross-sectional area in comparison to electrodiagnostic tests for identifying ulnar nerve entrapment at the elbow in rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients and methods

This study was designed as a cross-sectional observational analysis involving 90 individuals, divided into three groups: Group A consisted of 30 individuals diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis without clinical signs of ulnar neuropathy at the elbow; Group B included 30 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis exhibiting clinical indicators of ulnar neuropathy at the elbow; and Group C comprised 30 healthy controls. Each participant underwent a thorough medical history assessment, along with both clinical and neurological evaluations. Additionally, ultrasound and electrophysiological assessments of the ulnar nerve were performed.

Results

There was no significant demographic difference between the groups, except for age, which was notably lower in Group A compared to Group B. Additionally, abnormalities in nerve conduction studies and cross-sectional area were found to be significantly greater in Group B (p <0.0001). The cross-sectional area demonstrated diagnostic accuracy rates of 52.22%, 62.22%, and 78.89% for identifying ulnar neuropathy at Guyon's canal, the medial epicondyle, and based on the elbow-to-wrist ratio, respectively.

Conclusion

Ultrasonography exhibits high diagnostic accuracy, especially with the cross-sectional area at the medial epicondyle and the elbow-to-wrist cross-sectional area ratio serving as important indicators for ulnar nerve entrapment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Long-Term Prognosis of Older Adults Who Survive Emergency Mechanical Ventilation

CONTEXT

Emergent mechanical ventilation represents an important inflection point in seriously ill older adults' illness trajectories. Data are lacking on the long-term prognosis after surviving mechanical ventilation to inform shared decision making in serious illness conversations.

OBJECTIVES

Describe the long-term prognosis of older adults who survive emergency mechanical ventilation to inform shared decision making.

METHODS

This is a retrospective cohort study from a single-center intensive care unit in an academic, urban, and tertiary care medical center. We included adults aged 75 years and older consecutively admitted with mechanical ventilation between 2008 and 2012 in the Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring of Intensive Care III database. We excluded patients who were electively admitted. Our primary outcome was the long-term prognosis after leaving the hospital stratified by discharge location. Our secondary outcome was the frequency of documented serious illness conversations within 48 hours of hospitalization recommended by the National Quality Forum.

RESULTS

We identified 415 patients (454 hospital admissions) consecutively admitted to the intensive care unit. The median age was 82.6 years, 54.0% were female, 78.2% were white, non-Hispanic, and in-hospital mortality rate was 36.6%. Among the survivors, the median survival after hospital discharge was 163.5 days (interquartile range 37.5-476.8). Only 49.1% of patients had documented serious illness conversations within 48 hours of hospitalization. About 63.4% of patients (59 of 93) who were discharged to long-term acute care hospitals died by six months.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated the long-term prognosis of older adults who underwent emergent mechanical ventilation. These data could be used to inform shared decision making in serious illness conversations.