Background and PurposeThe Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2016 (J‐SSCG 2016), a Japanese‐specific set of clinical practice guidelines for sepsis and septic shock created jointly by the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine, was first released in February 2017 in Japanese. An English‐language version of these guidelines was created based on the contents of the original Japanese‐language version.MethodsMembers of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine were selected and organized into 19 committee members and 52 working group members. The guidelines were prepared in accordance with the Medical Information Network Distribution Service (Minds) creation procedures. The Academic Guidelines Promotion Team was organized to oversee and provide academic support to the respective activities allocated to each Guideline Creation Team. To improve quality assurance and workflow transparency, a mutual peer review system was established, and discussions within each team were open to the public. Public comments were collected once after the initial formulation of a clinical question (CQ), and twice during the review of the final draft. Recommendations were determined to have been adopted after obtaining support from a two‐thirds (>66.6%) majority vote of each of the 19 committee members.ResultsA total of 87 CQs were selected among 19 clinical areas, including pediatric topics and several other important areas not covered in the first edition of the Japanese guidelines (J‐SSCG 2012). The approval rate obtained through committee voting, in addition to ratings of the strengths of the recommendation and its supporting evidence were also added to each recommendation statement. We conducted meta‐analyses for 29 CQs. Thirty seven CQs contained recommendations in the form of an expert consensus due to insufficient evidence. No recommendations were provided for 5 CQs.ConclusionsBased on the evidence gathered, we were able to formulate Japanese‐specific clinical practice guidelines that are tailored to the Japanese context in a highly transparent manner. These guidelines can easily be used not only by specialists, but also by non‐specialists, general clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, clinical engineers, and other healthcare professionals.

IntroductionWe examined the effectiveness of early rehabilitation for the prevention of postintensive care syndrome (PICS), characterised by an impaired physical, cognitive or mental health status, among survivors of critical illness.MethodsWe performed a systematic literature search of several databases (Medline, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) and a manual search to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effectiveness of early rehabilitation versus no early rehabilitation or standard care for the prevention of PICS. The primary outcomes were short-term physical-related, cognitive-related and mental health-related outcomes assessed during hospitalisation. The secondary outcomes were the standardised, long-term health-related quality of life scores (EuroQol 5 Dimension (EQ5D) and the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey Physical Function Scale (SF-36 PF)). We used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to rate the quality of evidence (QoE).ResultsSix RCTs selected from 5105 screened abstracts were included. Early rehabilitation significantly improved short-term physical-related outcomes, as indicated by an increased Medical Research Council scale score (standardised mean difference (SMD): 0.38, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.66, p=0.009) (QoE: low) and a decreased incidence of intensive care unit-acquired weakness (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.82, p=0.01, QoE: low), compared with standard care or no early rehabilitation. However, the two groups did not differ in terms of cognitive-related delirium-free days (SMD: −0.02, 95% CI −0.23 to 0.20, QoE: low) and the mental health-related Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score (OR: 0.79, 95% CI 0.29 to 2.12, QoE: low). Early rehabilitation did not improve the long-term outcomes of PICS as characterised by EQ5D and SF-36 PF.ConclusionsEarly rehabilitation improved only short-term physical-related outcomes in patients with critical illness. Additional large RCTs are needed.

Background and purposeThe Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2016 (J-SSCG 2016), a Japanese-specific set of clinical practice guidelines for sepsis and septic shock created jointly by the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine, was first released in February 2017 and published in the Journal of JSICM, [2017; Volume 24 (supplement 2)] 10.3918/jsicm.24S0001 and Journal of Japanese Association for Acute Medicine [2017; Volume 28, (supplement 1)] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jja2.2017.28.issue-S1/issuetoc.This abridged English edition of the J-SSCG 2016 was produced with permission from the Japanese Association of Acute Medicine and the Japanese Society for Intensive Care Medicine.MethodsMembers of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine were selected and organized into 19 committee members and 52 working group members. The guidelines were prepared in accordance with the Medical Information Network Distribution Service (Minds) creation procedures. The Academic Guidelines Promotion Team was organized to oversee and provide academic support to the respective activities allocated to each Guideline Creation Team. To improve quality assurance and workflow transparency, a mutual peer review system was established, and discussions within each team were open to the public. Public comments were collected once after the initial formulation of a clinical question (CQ) and twice during the review of the final draft. Recommendations were determined to have been adopted after obtaining support from a two-thirds (> 66.6%) majority vote of each of the 19 committee members.ResultsA total of 87 CQs were selected among 19 clinical areas, including pediatric topics and several other important areas not covered in the first edition of the Japanese guidelines (J-SSCG 2012). The approval rate obtained through committee voting, in addition to ratings of the strengths of the recommendation, and its supporting evidence were also added to each recommendation statement. We conducted meta-analyses for 29 CQs. Thirty-seven CQs contained recommendations in the form of an expert consensus due to insufficient evidence. No recommendations were provided for five CQs.ConclusionsBased on the evidence gathered, we were able to formulate Japanese-specific clinical practice guidelines that are tailored to the Japanese context in a highly transparent manner. These guidelines can easily be used not only by specialists, but also by non-specialists, general clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, clinical engineers, and other healthcare professionals.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40560-017-0270-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

IntroductionPostintensive care syndrome (PICS) is defined as a new or worsening impairment in cognition, mental health and physical function after critical illness. There is little evidence regarding treatment of patients with PICS; new directions for effective treatment strategies are urgently needed. Early physiotherapy may prevent or reverse some physical impairments in patients with PICS, but no systematic reviews have investigated the effectiveness of early rehabilitation on PICS-related outcomes. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate whether early rehabilitative interventions in critically ill patients can prevent PICS and decrease mortality.MethodsWe will conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of early rehabilitation for the prevention of PICS in critically ill adults. We will search PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for published randomised controlled trials. We will screen search results and assess study selection, data extraction and risk of bias in duplicate, resolving disagreements by consensus. We will pool data from clinically homogeneous studies using a random-effects meta-analysis; assess heterogeneity of effects using the χ2 test of homogeneity; and quantify any observed heterogeneity using the I2 statistic. We will use the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to rate the quality of evidence.DiscussionThis systematic review will present evidence on the prevention of PICS in critically ill patients with early rehabilitation.EthicsEthics approval is not required.DisseminationThe results will be disseminated via peer-reviewed journal publication, conference presentation(s) and publications for patient information.Trial registration numberCRD42016039759.

Procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein serve as biomarkers of infection in patients with sepsis/bacteremia. The present study assessed the clinical characteristics of 280 patients with suspected sepsis who were admitted to Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital between January 2012 and December 2013. Among the patients, 133 and 147 were positive and negative for PCT, respectively. Patients who were PCT positive were older and more frequently male, had reduced levels of platelets and albumin, and increased levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and C-reactive protein. Patients who were PCT positive had significantly higher blood culture positivity compared with those who were PCT negative, and the sensitivity and specificity of PCT for detecting positive blood cultures were 74.5% and 59.1%, respectively. Escherichia coli was detected in PCT-positive patients, whereas Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus lugdunensis were frequently detected in PCT-negative patients. Levels of PCT were higher in the patients infected with gram-negative rods than those with gram-positive cocci. Furthermore, extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria cases showed higher levels of PCT than those of non-ESBL cases. These results suggest that PCT may be a useful biomarker of sepsis, and it might serve as a strong tool to detect patients with severe gram-negative rod bacteremia including ESBL-producing bacteria cases early due to its relative high sensitivity.