Have you heard of the hyperbaric chamber? This unique type of oxygen treatment helps patients with a variety of medical issues. See a quick breakdown of how it helps patients from an ICU RN.
Alcohol withdrawal syndrome is very real and can be fatal in some individuals if left untreated. Learn the how to manage patients with alcohol withdrawal or delirium tremens (DTs) from an ICU RN.
What are the causes and treatment of hyperkalemia (a high potassium level)? What should we, as nurses, be looking out for when treating these patients?
It is amazing the research that is being done to help restore senses to paralyzed individuals. This article discusses the way that this paralyzed man is now able to feel sensation using a brain implant and a prosthesis.
Someone I know was describing a procedure in which a tube was placed through a patient's back into their kidneys to drain their urine. I had never heard of this before. What is this called? A nephrostomy tube. Check out a quick summary of what it is and its indications.
Do you think it would make a difference what time of day you get your flu shot? British researchers have found that the time of day you get vaccinated greatly impacts your antibody production. Read more to find out when to get your flu shot next year!
Hepatitis is a common viral infection in the hospital population, especially with liver failure patients. There are a variety of strains of hepatitis, some acute and some chronic in nature. The most common type that I have seen in the ICU is Hepatitis C with chronic liver disease patients. When patients are in the ICU, their liver failure is generally very advanced requiring more palliative treatment. What causes this destruction of the liver? How do we prevent this from happening?
One of the unfortunate situations that we deal with in the ICU is when patients progress to brain death. The most common causes that I have seen of brain death are from either a hemorrhagic stroke or a cardiac arrest which increased the patient's intracranial pressure causing herniation (the brain passing through the spinal column causing the most severe and irreversible brain damage).
The Whipple procedure is one of great intensity. Surgeons remove part of the pancreas, stomach, small intestine, gall bladder, and even lymph nodes. Why would such an invasive procedure need to be performed? Check out a simple explanation from an ICU RN.
We see a large amount of patients admitted to the ICU for end stage liver failure from alcoholism. Occasionally we will see someone admitted with the same symptoms, but they do not have a history of alcoholism or hepatitis. How do they end up in such horrible liver failure?
