OBJECTIVEHematological abnormalities after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are common, and are associated with a poor outcome. Whether these abnormalities offer additional prognostic significance over and beyond validated TBI prognostic models is uncertain.METHODSThis retrospective cohort study compared the ability of admission hematological abnormalities to that of the IMPACT (International Mission for Prognosis and Analysis of Clinical Trials) prognostic model to predict 18-month neurological outcome of 388 patients who required a decompressive craniectomy after severe TBI, between 2004 and 2016, in Western Australia. Area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve was used to assess predictors’ ability to discriminate between patients with and without an unfavorable outcome of death, vegetative state, or severe disability.RESULTSOf the 388 patients included in the study, 151 (38.9%) had an unfavorable outcome at 18 months after decompressive craniectomy for severe TBI. Abnormalities in admission hemoglobin (AUROC 0.594, p = 0.002), plasma glucose (AUROC 0.592, p = 0.002), fibrinogen (AUROC 0.563, p = 0.036), international normalized ratio (INR; AUROC 0.645, p = 0.001), activated partial thromboplastin time (AUROC 0.564, p = 0.033), and disseminated intravascular coagulation score (AUROC 0.623, p = 0.001) were all associated with a higher risk of unfavorable outcome at 18 months after severe TBI. As a marker of inflammation, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was not significantly associated with the risk of unfavorable outcome (AUROC 0.500, p = 0.998). However, none of these parameters, in addition to the platelet count, were significantly associated with an unfavorable outcome after adjusting for the IMPACT predicted risk (odds ratio [OR] per 10% increment in risk 2.473, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.061–2.967; p = 0.001). After excluding 8 patients (2.1%) who were treated with warfarin prior to the injury, there was a suggestion that INR was associated with some additional prognostic significance (OR 3.183, 95% CI 0.856–11.833; p = 0.084) after adjusting for the IMPACT predicted risk.CONCLUSIONSIn isolation, INR was the best hematological prognostic parameter in severe TBI requiring decompressive craniectomy, especially when patients treated with warfarin were excluded. However, the prognostic significance of admission hematological abnormalities was mostly captured by the IMPACT prognostic model, such that they did not offer any additional prognostic information beyond the IMPACT predicted risk. These results suggest that new prognostic factors for TBI should be evaluated in conjunction with predicted risks of a comprehensive prognostic model that has been validated, such as the IMPACT prognostic model.

Summary Postoperative increases in serum creatinine concentration, by amounts historically viewed as trivial, are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Acute kidney injury is common, affecting one in five patients admitted with acute medical disease and up to four in five patients admitted to intensive care, of whom one in two have had operations. This review is focused principally on the identification of patients at risk of acute kidney injury and the prevention of injury. In the main, there are no interventions that directly treat the damaged kidney. The management of acute kidney injury is based on correction of dehydration, hypotension, and urinary tract obstruction, stopping nephrotoxic drugs, giving antibiotics for bacterial infection, and commencing renal replacement therapy if necessary.

We present the case of a 51-year-old woman admitted to our intensive care unit following an intentional overdose of a calcium channel antagonist and a beta blocker. The resultant hypotension was reversed with glucagon, noradrenaline, calcium and high-dose insulin. Despite these interventions, she remained vasoplegic and received a delayed, standard dose of intralipid. Subsequently, the vasoplegia resolved rapidly, and the vasopressor was stopped. Here, we review the management of overdose of calcium channel and beta-adrenergic receptor blockers, concentrating on the pharmacology of lipid emulsion therapy. There remain some unanswered questions about lipid emulsion therapy: treatment with lipid therapy is usually advocated as soon as possible; this case report suggests that it remains efficacious even if its administration were delayed.

Microbiota—defined as a collection of microbial organisms colonising different parts of the human body—is now recognised as a pivotal element of human health, and explains a large part of the variance in the phenotypic expression of many diseases. A reduction in microbiota diversity, and replacement of normal microbes with non-commensal, pathogenic or more virulent microbes in the gastrointestinal tract—also known as gut dysbiosis—is now considered to play a causal role in the pathogenesis of many acute and chronic diseases. Results from animal and human studies suggest that dysbiosis is linked to cardiovascular and metabolic disease through changes to microbiota-derived metabolites, including trimethylamine-N-oxide and short-chain fatty acids. Dysbiosis can occur within hours of surgery or the onset of critical illness, even without the administration of antibiotics. These pathological changes in microbiota may contribute to important clinical outcomes, including surgical infection, bowel anastomotic leaks, acute kidney injury, respiratory failure and brain injury. As a strategy to reduce dysbiosis, the use of probiotics (live bacterial cultures that confer health benefits) or synbiotics (probiotic in combination with food that encourages the growth of gut commensal bacteria) in surgical and critically ill patients has been increasingly reported to confer important clinical benefits, including a reduction in ventilator-associated pneumonia, bacteraemia and length of hospital stay, in small randomised controlled trials. However, the best strategy to modulate dysbiosis or counteract its potential harms remains uncertain and requires investigation by a well-designed, adequately powered, randomised controlled trial.