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 McMillan
Chapter 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