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Updated: Jun 4, 2026
05:56
Monitoring Lung Function with Electrical Impedance Tomography in the Intensive Care Unit
Published on: September 6, 2024
It takes an intensivist
Lora Z Silverman1, L Marco Hoesel, Aken Desai
1St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA.
American Journal of Surgery
|March 4, 2011
Summary
Implementing sepsis guidelines and adding surgical intensivists significantly reduced hospital length of stay and costs. The combined approach further decreased mortality risk in surgical intensive care units.
Area of Science:
- Critical Care Medicine
- Surgical Outcomes
- Evidence-Based Practice
Background:
- The Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines were implemented in 2006.
- A hypothesis was formed that a surgical intensivist would improve outcomes beyond guideline implementation alone.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines on sepsis patient outcomes.
- To determine if the addition of a surgical intensivist further improved outcomes.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective data analysis of 273 surgical intensive care unit patients with sepsis.
- Patients were categorized into three groups: pre-bundle, bundle, and bundle-plus (guidelines plus surgical intensivist).
Main Results:
- A statistically significant decrease in length of stay (LOS) was observed across all three groups.
- Mortality rates were significantly lower in the bundle-plus group compared to the bundle group (P < .01).
- Average cost savings were noted between each treatment group.
Conclusions:
- Evidence-based guideline implementation effectively reduced LOS and costs in the surgical intensive care unit.
- Integrating surgical intensivist expertise further diminished LOS, costs, and the relative risk of death compared to guidelines alone.
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