Critical Care Commons^™

A Case Of Inferior Myocardial Infarction Complicated By Ventricular Septal Rupture Leading To Cardiogenic Shock: Tandem Heart To The Rescue!, Shehab Al-Ansari, Sachin Kumar, Angelo Nascimbene, Manish K. Patel, Igor D. Gregoric

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

Ventricular septal rupture (VSR) is a rare but life-threatening complication of acute myocardial infarction. We present a case of VSR-related refractory cardiogenic shock that was successfully managed with TandemHeart® followed by surgical repair.

Early Unloading In Venoarterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Shock: When, How, Where, And Why?, Benedikt Schrage

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

As extracorporeal membrane oxygenation increases the left ventricular afterload, a successful treatment plan should include strategies to address this issue. One promising approach to do so is the addition of a second device for active left ventricular unloading. However, this relatively new approach is currently only based on retrospective data. This article summarizes the current perspectives on this approach, provides recommendations for its application, and highlights the need for randomized data on this topic.

Microcirculation Versus Macrocirculation In Cardiogenic Shock, Christian Jung

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

Macro- and microcirculation are important parameters in cardiogenic shock. Microcirculation is relevant for monitoring organ function and prognosis. Serum lactate might be the best daily life parameter to assess microcirculation, and the crude 8-hour value can be used for outcome prediction. Any treatment should consider the consequences of microcirculation and macrocirculation.

Hemodynamics Of Prolonged Percutaneous Mechanical Circulatory Support – When Vasodilatation Sets, Holger Thiele

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

Hemodynamics play an important role in cardiogenic shock assessment for prognosis estimation and for phenotyping cardiogenic shock. This is best done by pulmonary artery catheters. In general, at the beginning of cardiogenic shock, patients have vasoconstriction, which over time may lead to vasodilation. This is often triggered by percutaneous mechanical circulatory support. This review will elucidate the hemodynamics and the factors that possibly lead to vasodilation in patients with mechanical circulatory support.

Society For Improving Medical Professional Learning Collaborative: What’S It All About?, Joseph B. Zwischenberger, Katherine Breetz, Daniel Cooper

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

The Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning (SIMPL) Collaborative is a non-profit, educational, quality improvement consortium focused on developing tools, curricula, and policies to improve physician training. The goal is to provide educators and learners with convenient, reliable, and valid evaluation tools for frequent, real-time workplace assessment and feedback. The SIMPL Operating Room application provides this platform. It was developed to provide high-quality, time-sensitive, procedural feedback. Its objective is to facilitate intra-rotation corrections.

SIMPL is available to all residency programs and has matured to include over 175 residency programs, involving 19 different specialties, 4000 trainees, 5000 attendings, and 354,800 evaluations …

Houston Shock: A Practical Scoring System Incorporating Cardiogenic Shock Dynamic Changes, Marwan F. Jumean, Sriram Nathan, Igor D. Gregoric, Biswajit Kar

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

Cardiogenic shock has an unacceptably high mortality rate and additional tools are needed to improve outcomes. The Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) shock severity classification has provided a unified definition of shock severity that has proven to be reproducible and predictive of survival. However, cardiogenic shock assessment goes beyond standardizing its severity, and a uniform and practical approach to comprehensive assessment that may guide therapy in a dynamic state is currently lacking.

Since cardiogenic shock is a rapidly evolving pathophysiological catastrophe, we propose a new assessment tool – the Houston SHOCK Score – which incorporates dynamic changes. The …

Journal Of Shock And Hemodynamics, Vol 1., Iss. 1 (Print Version)

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

The print version of Volume I, Issue I of the Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics was published in September 2022. The PDF of the print version is downloadable here.

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Therapy In Covid-19 Patients With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Joseph B. Zwischenberger, Katherine Breetz

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

Patients with coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) may present with a wide range of symptoms ranging from asymptomatic to critically ill. Approximately 10-14% of patients require hospitalization. Those individuals requiring hospitalization can deteriorate rapidly with worsening hypoxemia or new-onset pneumonia, resulting in 20-30% of patients developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

When refractory to medical management, severe ARDS secondary to other illnesses has been successfully treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). We completed a comprehensive literature review of ECMO utilization for patients with severe COVID-19 who were unresponsive to critical care management. Of the 1419 patients with a reported diagnosis …