Critical Care Time

Every time we admit or care for a critically ill patient, we must consider their risk for deep venous thrombosis, or DVT. Many of our patients are at higher risk for DVT than the general population, but anticoagulants are not wholly benign drugs. What do we do? How do we decide who to treat medically, who to treat with mechanical compressive devices and identify patients who may NOT need anything? When do risks outweigh benefits? What agent is best?Join Nick and Cyrus as they interview hematologist & oncologist Dr. Matthew Rendo (Twitter/X: Rendoncology) as they do a deep dive into managing DVT prophylaxis in the critically ill patient! 

Airway management in the critically ill can be one of the most challenging, stressful and rewarding elements of critical care medicine. While the anatomically challenging airway is often the first place our minds go when discussing difficult airways, the physiologically difficult airway is both more common and often requires more savvy to overcome. Join Cyrus & Nick as they take a pragmatic, case-based approach to this topic with the hopes of equipping you with the tools you need to successfully take a physiologically difficult airway, or support an airway operator charged with this task!

Whether you work in the ICU, on the medicine wards or in the prehospital setting, you've got to be familiar with the unsung hero of the thorax - the pleura! On this episode of Critical Care Time, Cyrus & Nick extol the virtues of this humble structure, cover a little comparative physiology and spend the latter half of their chat discussing all things pneumothorax. Sit back, relax and enjoy this episode packed with pulmonary and critical care pearls that will take your breath away!

Running a code is a stressful proposition. The code team leader is responsible for conducting an orchestra in a most austere environment, with the goal of guiding the team towards success - defined hopefully by a successful resuscitation. The code team leader needs to have the presence of mind to lead, but also needs to know how to delegate responsibilities and quickly cultivate a shared mental-model between the various team members. Join Nick and Cyrus as they try to demystify some of the elements of leading a code by providing practical pearls and shedding light on potential pitfalls during this episode on Cardiac Arrest and Running a Code.

On this episode of Critical Care Time, Cyrus and Nick go beyond the basics of vasopressor management. This thing is jam-packed with high-yield pearls, where we discuss important topics such as how to titrate vasopressors, what can be done when vasopressors seem to be failing and how to wean patients from vasopressors in order to successfully get them out of the ICU and ultimately home. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this hour long master-class on Vasopressors - Beyond the Basics!

On this episode of Critical Care Time, Cyrus and Nick explore the basic in’s and out’s of vasopressors, providing a framework for understanding them and recommendations for the who, what, when, where and why as it pertains to their use! If you are new to the ICU or work anywhere that vasopressors may be used to treat your patients, this is the episode for you! Whether you are ordering them, titrating them or looking out for complications associated with their use, Nick & Cyrus have got your back! 

They say that when you hear hoofbeats, you should look for horses. This age-old medical adage makes sense in many circumstances, but what do you do when the paradigm is flawed? What if what we generally accept as a common entity, is actually rare? What about the reverse? In this first episode of Zorses & Hebras, Nick & Cyrus will discuss some of these very entities in the context of critical illness, shed some light on them, and explain why focusing on the Horses & Zebras model may bite you on the tail!

Delirium is a common but serious complication of critical illness. Nick and Cyrus discuss this important topic with Dr. Wes Ely, MD. They cover prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of delirium; Dr. Ely's award-winning book "Every Deep Drawn Breath", and how his life story led him to become a world expert in brain dysfunction in the ICU.Go to https://criticalcaretime.com for more information