Critical Care Evidence Updates – May 2026
Randomised Controlled Trials
A Nurse-Led Approach to Preventing Delirium in the ICU: A Randomised Controlled Trial of NICE Guideline-Based Sensory Modulation Nursing in Critical Care
Early Enteral Levothyroxine as Rescue Therapy in Cardiac Surgery Patients with Delayed Neurological Recovery: A Randomized Trial Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia
Effect of urinary catheter securement band on meatal pressure injury in male intensive care patients: A randomized controlled trial Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Effects of nurse-led intensive care unit diaries on emotional distress in patients undergoing liver transplantation: A randomized controlled trial Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Effects of out-of-bed armchair positioning on oxygenation in spontaneously breathing ICU patients receiving respiratory support: a randomized controlled trial Intensive Care Medicine
Effects of the ABCDEF Bundle on Delirium, Function, and Quality of Life in Australian ICU Patients: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial Critical Care Medicine
Impact of early nurse-led implementation of an intensive care unit diary following major trauma on quality of life: The QUALITRAU randomized controlled trial Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Impact of magnesium on the clearance of lactate in critically sick patients with sepsis: Randomized clinical trial World Journal of Critical Care Medicine
Ivermectin for Critically and Noncritically Ill Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19: Randomized, Embedded, Multifactorial Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) Critical Care Medicine
Reducing Physical Restraint in the ICU: Multicenter Phase II Randomized Trial of a Novel Device Versus Traditional Wrist Restraints Critical Care Medicine
Remote Multicomponent Rehabilitation in Intensive Care Unit Survivors A Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA
The FICUS cluster randomized controlled trial of a family support intervention in adult intensive care units: mental health and family functioning outcomes Intensive Care Medicine
Ultrafiltration Rate in Prolonged Intermittent Kidney Replacement Therapy in Critically Ill Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial Hemodialysis International
Other Guidance/Reports
Disseminating Your Study Results to Maximise Implementation in Practice: A Practical Framework for Intensive Care Nursing Nursing in Critical Care
Expert Consensus on Key Attributes of Nurses in Resuscitation Teams: Findings From a Delphi Study Nursing in Critical Care
Organ donation after ECPR: ethical challenges and clinical implications Critical Care
Recommendations for implementing patient blood management—an updated modified Delphi consensus from a multidisciplinary expert panel in Hong Kong Journal of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Critical Care
Telemedicine Policy and Practice: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians Annals of Internal Medicine
The Dutch Clinical Practice Guideline: Pain, analgesia/sedation, delirium, immobility and sleep disturbances; PADIS Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
The IMPACT framework for evaluating generative AI in critical care: development and multinational consensus validation Annals of Intensive Care
Cochrane
Primary Research
“A little brainpower goes a long way”. Patient and family experience of early cognitive rehabilitation in critical illness: an interview study Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
An Evidence-Based Quality Improvement Programme for Glycaemic Management in Critically Ill Patients Receiving Enteral Nutrition Nursing in Critical Care
Association between abdominal muscle weakness and weaning failure in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients: an ultrasound assessment Journal of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Critical Care
Association of fluid creep and maintenance fluids on major adverse kidney events in critically ill patients – An observational cohort study Journal of Critical Care
Barriers and facilitators to patient- and family-centered care in the ICU: A qualitative study of multiple stakeholder perspectives Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Beyond Pain: An Exploratory Secondary Analysis of Psychological and Physical Discomfort Domains in ICU Patients Nursing in Critical Care
Beyond recovery: long-term cardiovascular risks after severe COVID-19 requiring intensive care Critical Care
Biochemical verification of tobacco use in ICU patients using point-of-care urinary cotinine Critical Care and Resuscitation
Central venous cannulation in critically ill patients: guidelines of the Polish Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy Anaesthesiology Intensive Therapy
Comparing cardiac index and left ventricular ejection fraction in ICU patients with sepsis Journal of Critical Care
Comparison of Blood Culture Contamination Rates Between Initial Central Venous Puncture and Catheter Hub Sampling Critical Care Medicine
Construct validity and inter- rater reliability of the Heckmatt scale for assessing muscle quality in critically ill patients Journal of Critical Care
Critical care nurses’ grief, anxiety, and their preparedness to care for dying patients: a multisite, cross-sectional study in Ireland Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Delirium-care barriers among intensive care nurses based on the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model: A cross-sectional study Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Development and psychometric validation of the Patient-Reported Intensive Care Experience Measure (PRICEM) to evaluate patient experience in the intensive care unit Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Early combination of terlipressin and norepinephrine in the treatment of patients with septic shock Clinics
Effect of restrictive fluid balance in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury: a target trial emulation Critical Care
Effects of Platelet Transfusion on Sepsis Associated Thrombocytopenia (SAT): A Multicenter Retrospective Chart Review Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
Environmental Noise in Intensive Care Units: Occupational Exposure, Nurse Well-Being and Care Quality—A Mixed-Methods Study Nursing in Critical Care
Evaluation of patients’ perception of pharmacist’s role within a post-ICU recovery clinic: the Critical Illness Recovery Center (E-PICS-Rx) International Journal of Pharmacy Practice
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Pneumocystis Pneumonia: Outcomes in Patients From the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Critical Care Explorations
Evaluation of the prognostic value and modifiability of low-frequency pressure reactivity index in patients with traumatic brain injury Journal of Critical Care
High-flow nasal cannula versus noninvasive ventilation in stabilized hypercapnic exacerbation: a physiological crossover trial Annals of Intensive Care
How does the prioritisation of care affect ICU healthcare professionals? Journal of Critical Care
“I hope the staff read my mother’s story and appreciate the life she lived” what families want ICU healthcare professionals to know about their loved one’s Journal of Critical Care
ICU Delirium Patterns and 30-Day Mortality in Critically Ill Adults Nursing in Critical Care
Impact of an interdisciplinary standard operating procedure on external ventricular drainage-associated ventriculitis and antibiotic use in intensive care unit patients: a retrospective pre–post study a retrospective pre-post study Journal of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Critical Care
Impact of the updated SOFA-2 score on sepsis diagnosis and prognosis: a retrospective multicenter cohort study Critical Care
Improving Family-Centred Care in Intensive Care Units: Participatory Action Research to Design and Implement Changes in Nursing Care Nursing in Critical Care
Interaction Between Admission Hemoglobin and Sex on ICU Mortality in Patients With Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Retrospective Bicentric Cohort Study Critical Care Medicine
Mechanical Thrombectomy for Intermediate- and High-Risk Pulmonary Embolism: A Retrospective Observational Cohort Study Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
Methylene blue for septic shock in oncologic patients: A propensity score-matched cohort Journal of Critical Care
Modifiable Risk Factors of Prolonged Grief Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, and Anxiety Symptom States After ICU Loss Critical Care Medicine
More Than a Tool: How Context Shapes the Implementation of Digital Diaries in the Intensive Care Unit Nursing in Critical Care
MOSHI 2: An exploration of key safety concerns, mitigations and adaptive capacity arising from the use of safety huddles in ICUs across the United Kingdom − A cross-sectional national e-survey Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Nurses’ subjective workload assessed with the NASA-TLX and its relationship with the nursing activities score (NAS) and nurses’ demographic factors: a prospective cross-sectional study Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Occurrence of hypoxic liver injury in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome: A retrospective cohort study Journal of Intensive Medicine
Performance of the Ventilatory Ratio to Predict Intubation in Patients With COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Critical Care Explorations
Physical function at ICU discharge and long-term outcomes in mechanically ventilated patients: A retrospective cohort study Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Point-of-care presepsin and procalcitonin to rule out sepsis in patients with infectious symptoms Journal of Critical Care
Prognostic Value of Scoring Systems in Elderly Sepsis-Associated AKI Patients: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
Prognostic Value of the Diuretic Response to Low-Dose Furosemide for Predicting Progression from Acute Kidney Injury Stage 1 in Critically Ill Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
Radiologic drivers of dysphagia after intracerebral haemorrhage: a flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing-guided retrospective analysis on intensive care unit Neurological Research and Practice
Real-Time Ultrasound-Guided Versus Ultrasound-Assisted (non–Real-Time) Pigtail Catheter Insertion for Pleural Effusion Drainage in the Intensive Care Unit: A Retrospective Cohort Study Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
Red Cell Transfusion in Critically Ill and Noncritically Ill Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction and Anemia—A Subanalysis of the Myocardial Ischemia and Transfusion (MINT) Trial Critical Care Medicine
Revisiting the fluid challenge and stroke volume optimisation after induction of general anaesthesia Annals of Intensive Care
Shaping intensive care follow-up clinics: A qualitative study of professionals’ experiences and digital integration Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Stakeholders’ views and recommendations on active participation of family members in direct ICU care: A qualitative study Intensive and Critical Care Nursing
Temporal trends in time to asystole in patients considered for organ donation after circulatory death Journal of the Intensive Care Society
The Effect of Readmission to the ICU on 60-Day Hospital Mortality in Patients With and Without Frailty: A Binational Registry-Based Study Critical Care Medicine
The Ethical Tightrope of Physical and Environmental Restraint in ICU: A Balancing Act Nursing in Critical Care
The new SOFA for sepsis identification and mortality prediction: a multicenter cohort study Journal of Intensive Care
Well-being in intensive care: reflections from a multinational survey Journal of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Critical Care
Metadata
Summary author: Rebecca Howes @ClinicalLibsPHU
Summary date:
Picture by: Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
