Rising Hospital Mortality and Escalating Rates of Life-Sustaining Therapy Withdrawal in Critically Ill TBI Patients: A 15-Year Analysis

A 15-year observational study of over 45,000 TBI patients reveals a significant increase in hospital mortality and a tripling of life-sustaining therapy withdrawal, alongside rising rates of hypoxaemia, raising urgent questions about ethical frameworks and neurocritical care management.
High-frequency Oscillatory Ventilation in Near‑Term and Term Infants: Inconclusive Benefit and Possible Increased Mortality — What the 2025 Cochrane Update Tells Clinicians

High-frequency Oscillatory Ventilation in Near‑Term and Term Infants: Inconclusive Benefit and Possible Increased Mortality — What the 2025 Cochrane Update Tells Clinicians

A 2025 Cochrane update (3 RCTs, 368 infants) finds very low- to low-certainty evidence that HFOV neither clearly reduces treatment failure nor pulmonary air leak and may increase mortality versus conventional ventilation in term/near‑term infants with severe pulmonary dysfunction.
Effectiveness of Automated Closed-Loop Ventilation versus Protocolized Conventional Ventilation in Critically Ill Adults: A Comprehensive Evidence Review

Effectiveness of Automated Closed-Loop Ventilation versus Protocolized Conventional Ventilation in Critically Ill Adults: A Comprehensive Evidence Review

Automated closed-loop ventilation improves ventilation quality but does not increase ventilator-free days at day 28 compared to protocolized conventional ventilation in critically ill adults, with benefits in safety profiles and caregiver workload.
RBC Transfusions in Early Sepsis Resuscitation: Common, Complex, and Potentially Harmful Above a 10 g/dL Threshold

RBC Transfusions in Early Sepsis Resuscitation: Common, Complex, and Potentially Harmful Above a 10 g/dL Threshold

In a multicenter Korean sepsis cohort, early RBC transfusions were frequent and driven by illness severity. No overall 60‑day mortality difference was seen after propensity matching, but transfusion was associated with harm at hemoglobin ≥10 g/dL and a possible benefit below that threshold.
Frailty Amplifies Mortality Risk Across the PaO2/FiO2 Spectrum: Insights from a 497,185‑Patient ANZICS Cohort

Frailty Amplifies Mortality Risk Across the PaO2/FiO2 Spectrum: Insights from a 497,185‑Patient ANZICS Cohort

In a 497,185‑patient registry study, frailty (CFS ≥5) was common and associated with substantially higher in‑hospital mortality across all severities of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF). The relationship between PaO2/FiO2 and death was nonlinear and distinctly separated by frailty category.
Why Emergency Medicine Residents Rarely Choose Surgical Critical Care — A Nationwide Survey and a Roadmap to Increase EM-SCC Matriculation

Why Emergency Medicine Residents Rarely Choose Surgical Critical Care — A Nationwide Survey and a Roadmap to Increase EM-SCC Matriculation

A national survey of 111 emergency medicine trainees identifies limited exposure to surgical critical care, institutional and geographic factors, and program characteristics (ECMO, multidisciplinary teams) as key modifiable drivers of low EM matriculation into surgical critical care fellowships.
Paracetamol Lowers Cerebral Temperature Modestly but Meaningfully in Febrile Brain‑Injured Patients: Results of the NEUROTHERM Randomized Pharmacodynamic Trial

Paracetamol Lowers Cerebral Temperature Modestly but Meaningfully in Febrile Brain‑Injured Patients: Results of the NEUROTHERM Randomized Pharmacodynamic Trial

In a double‑blind RCT of 99 febrile brain‑injured patients with intracerebral thermal probes, a single IV dose of paracetamol reduced mean cerebral temperature by 0.6°C versus placebo and kept cerebral temperature <38.5°C for a median 3.6 hours; one‑third of patients did not respond.
Conservative Dialysis Strategy Accelerates Kidney Recovery in Dialysis-Requiring AKI — Early Randomized Evidence from LIBERATE-D

Conservative Dialysis Strategy Accelerates Kidney Recovery in Dialysis-Requiring AKI — Early Randomized Evidence from LIBERATE-D

The LIBERATE-D randomized trial found that a conservative, indication-triggered dialysis strategy increased unadjusted kidney-recovery rates at hospital discharge and shortened time to dialysis independence compared with routine thrice-weekly dialysis in patients with dialysis-requiring AKI.
Targeting Capillary Refill Time in Early Septic Shock Reduced Duration of Organ Support: Key Findings from ANDROMEDA‑SHOCK‑2

Targeting Capillary Refill Time in Early Septic Shock Reduced Duration of Organ Support: Key Findings from ANDROMEDA‑SHOCK‑2

ANDROMEDA‑SHOCK‑2 randomized 1,501 patients with early septic shock to a personalized CRT‑guided hemodynamic protocol versus usual care. A hierarchical composite outcome favored the CRT strategy (win ratio 1.16; 95% CI 1.02–1.33; P = .04), driven mainly by shorter duration of organ support rather than lower mortality.
Resistance Training in the ICU Improves Muscle, Function, and Survival — HMB Adds Only Modest Benefit

Resistance Training in the ICU Improves Muscle, Function, and Survival — HMB Adds Only Modest Benefit

A multicenter 2×2 factorial RCT in 266 critically ill adults shows that in‑ICU resistance training improves discharge physical function, muscle mass, patient‑reported outcomes, and lowers 6‑ and 12‑month mortality; HMB supplementation produced only small gains in phase angle and fatigue with no additive effect.