50 Studies Every Intensivist Should Know

Dr. Edward Bittner, MD, PhD is an anesthesiologist and critical care physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he serves as Program Director for the Critical Care Medicine Fellowship and Associate Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. He is also an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School. He earned his PhD in biostatistics from Tulane University, medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and a master's degree in Medical Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bittner has broad academic and research interests that combine his background in biostatistics and education with his clinical expertise of anesthesiology and critical care. He has published over 150 original articles, reviews, chapters, and editorials in high impact journals and authoritative textbooks. He has also edited nine widely used books in anesthesiology and critical care.

• Section 1: Neurologic, Sedation, and Analgesia Chapter 1: Mild Therapeutic Hypothermia to Improve the Neurologic Outcome after Cardiac Arrest: The HACA trial Ala Nozari Chapter 2: Decompressive Craniectomy in Diffuse Traumatic Brain Injury: The DECRA Trial Merrick E. Miles and Avinash B. Kumar Chapter 3: Daily interruption of sedative infusions in critically ill patients undergoing mechanical ventilation David Stahl Chapter 4: A comparison of four treatments for generalized convulsive status epilepticus Jason L. Sanders and Jarone Lee Chapter 5: Efficacy and safety of a paired sedation and ventilator weaning protocol for mechanically ventilated patients in intensive care: a randomised controlled trial (Awakening and Breathing Controlled Trial) Jeffery Katz and Steve Greenberg Chapter 6: A protocol of no sedation for critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation: a randomized trial Ulrich Schmidt and Zeb McMillanChapter 7: Intracranial Pressure Monitoring in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Thomas Peponis and David R. King Section 2: Cardiovascular, Resuscitation, Shock Chapter 8: Early Goal-Directed Therapy in the treatment of severe sepsis and septic shock: The EGDT trial Namita Jayaprakash and Joseph Hyder Chapter 9: Lactate Clearance vs Central Venous Oxygen Saturation as Goals of Early Sepsis Therapy Marc de Moya and Leandra Krowsoski Chapter 10: Efficacy and Safety of Recombinant Human Activated Protein C for Severe Sepsis: The PROWESS Study Anna M. Ward and Richard M. Pino Chapter 11: Saline Versus Albumin for Resuscitation of Critically Ill Adults: The SAFE Study Craig S. Jabaley Chapter 12: The Use of the Pulmonary Artery Catheter in Critical Care: The PAC-Man Trial Shahzad Shaefi and Ameeka Pannu Chapter 13: Vasopressin versus Norepinephrine Infusion in Patients with Septic Shock: The VASST Trial Karim Fikry Chapter 14: Comparison of dopamine and norepinephrine in the treatment of shock: The SOAP II Trial Daniel W. Johnson Chapter 15: CPR with Chest Compression Alone or with Rescue Breathing Christopher "Kit" Tainter and Gabriel Wardi Chapter 16: Advanced Heart Failure Treated with Continuous-Flow Left Ventricular Assist Device David M. Dudzinski and James Sawalla Guseh Chapter 17: Intraaortic Balloon Support in Myocardial Infarction Complicated by Cardiogenic Shock David M. Dudzinski and Sam Bernard Chapter 18: Angioplasty vs. Fibrinolytics in Acute ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: The DANAMI-2 Trial Bryan Simmons Section 3: Pulmonary, ARDS Chapter 19: The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network: Ventilation with Lower Tidal Volumes as Compared with Traditional Tidal Volumes for Acute Lung Injury and the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Laleh Jalilian and Jeanine Wiener Kronish Chapter 20: Neuromuscular Blockers in Early Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Duncan McLean and Matthias Eikermann Chapter 21: Prone Positioning in Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: The PROSEVA trial Andrea Coppadoro and Giuseppe Foti Chapter 22: Efficacy and economic assessment of conventional ventilatory support versus extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for severe adult respiratory failure (CESAR): a multicentre randomised controlled trial Matthew James Sigakis Chapter 23: Comparison of Two Fluid-Management Strategies in Acute Lung Injury: The FACTT Trial Ross Gaudet and Rebecca Kalman Chapter 24: Positive End-Expiratory Pressure Setting in Adults with ALI and ARDS: The ExPress Trial J. Aaron Scott and Vivek Moitra Chapter 25: Efficacy and safety of corticosteroids for persistent acute respiratory distress syndrome Sean Levy and Ednan Bajwa Chapter 26: Effect of Early Vs. Late Tracheostomy Placement on Survival in Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilation: The TRACMAN Trial J. Michael Guthrie and Vadim Gudzenko Chapter 27: Using Esophageal Pressures to Improve Oxygenation and Compliance in Acute Lung Injury Connie Wang and Edward Bittner Chapter 28: A comparison of four methods of weaning patients from mechanical ventilation Sheri Berg and Archit Sharma Chapter 29: Noninvasive Ventilation for Acute COPD Exacerbations Robert Loflin and David Kaufman Chapter 30: High-Frequency Oscillation in Early Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Susan Wilcox and Haitham Al Ashry Section 4: Gastrointestinal/Nutrition Chapter 31: Risk Factors for Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Critically Ill Patients Miguel Cobas and Melissa Grillo Chapter 32: Early vs. Late Parenteral Nutrition in the ICU: The EPaNIC (Early Parenteral Nutrition Completing Enteral Nutrition in Adult Critically Ill Patients) Trial D. Dante Yeh Chapter 33: Initial Trophic vs Full Enteral Feeding in Patients With Acute Lung Injury: The EDEN Randomized Trial Milad Sharifpour and Pedro Mendez-Tellez Chapter 34: Early versus On-Demand Nasoenteric Tube Feeding in Acute Pancreatitis Peter J. Fagenholz Chapter 35: Glutamine and Antioxidants in Critically Ill Patients: The Redoxs Trial Yuk Ming Liu and Jarone Lee Section 5: Renal Chapter 36: Low-Dose Dopamine in Patients with Early Renal Dysfunction Tao Shen Chapter 37: Intensity of Renal Support in Critically Ill Patients with Acute Kidney Injury Eric Ehieli and Yuriy Brohnsteyn Chapter 38: Continuous venovenous haemodiafiltration versus intermittent haemodialysis for acute renal failure in patients with multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome: a multicentre randomised trail. Christina Anne Jelly and Edward Bittner Section 6: Hematologic Chapter 39: A Multicenter, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial of Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care: The Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care (TRICC) Trial Joseph R. Guenzer and Andrew Vardanian Chapter 40: Reducing Mortality Among Bleeding Trauma Patients with Tranexamic Acid: The CRASH-2 (Clinical Randomization of an Antifibrinolytic in Significant Haemorrhage-2) Randomized Controlled Trial Haytham M.A. Kaafarani Chapter 41: Transfusion of plasma, platelets, and red blood cells in a 1:1:1 vs a 1:1:2 ration and mortality in patients with severe trauma: The PROPPR randomized clinical trial Yuk Ming Liu amd Kathryn Butler Section 7: Infectious Chapter 42: Comparison of 8 vs 15 days of antibiotic therapy for ventilator-associated pneumonia in adults: a randomized trial. Laurie O. Mark and Jean Kwo Chapter 43: Bronchoscopy with Bronchoalveolar Lavage vs. Endotracheal Aspiration for the Diagnosis of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia Samad Rasul and David C. Kaufman Chapter 44: Randomized trial of combination versus monotherapy for the empiric treatment of suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia Kimberly Pollock and Angela Meier Chapter 45: Use of procalcitonin to reduce patients' exposure to antibiotics in intensive care units (PRORATA trial): a multicentre randomised controlled trial Alice Gallo De Moraes and Dante Schiavo Chapter 46: Nasopharyngeal and Oropharyngeal Decontamination to Prevent Nosocomial Infection in Cardiac Surgery Patients Jose L. Diaz-Gomez and Sarah W. Robison Chapter 47: An intervention to decrease catheter-related bloodstream infections in the ICU: The Keystone ICU Project Courtney Maxey-Jones and Edward Bittner Section 8: Endocrine Chapter 48: The Normoglycemia in Intensive Care Evaluation-Survival Using Glucose Algorithm Regulation (NICE-SUGAR) Trial Daniel J. Niven and Tom Stelfox Chapter 49: Hydrocortisone Therapy for Patients with Septic Shock: The CORTICUS Trial Ryan J. Horvath and Edward Bittner Section 9: Musculoskeletal Chapter 50: Daily interruption of sedation with physical and occupational therapy in mechanically ventilated patients Michael Wolfe and Daniel Saddawi-Konefka

From junior postgraduate residents to senior consultants, this book is a must read.