CRITICAL CARE SOUP

"Finding the Right Dose: Optimizing Drug Therapy in Critically Ill Patients With Obesity" by Lauren Finch, PharmD; Carolyne DaSilva, PharmD; and Uyen Diep, PharmD, BCCCP, FCCM (AACN Advanced Critical Care, Fall 2026;37:265-271; Drug Update column edited by Melissa Noble, PharmD, BCCCP, FCCM) reviews how obesity alters pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics in the ICU and offers drug-class–specific dosing and monitoring guidance. Roughly 20% of ICU patients have obesity, and excess

Summary: "Pharmacotherapy Considerations for Inpatient Advanced Cardiac Life Support" (Posgai & Hochstetler, AACN Advanced Critical Care, 2025) This review addresses medication management in adult cardiac arrest, emphasizing that despite decades of use, no drug has been proven to improve survival with favorable neurologic outcome. Survival to discharge remains low—9.1% for out-of-hospital and 18.8% for in-hospital arrest—with high-quality CPR and early defibrillation of shock

Negative vs. positive pressure ventilation Negative pressure devices (iron lung, cuirass) expand the chest externally and are mainly useful in neuromuscular disease but cannot precisely control ventilation. Positive pressure ventilation delivers gas via a cuffed tube or mask, allows precise control of ventilation/oxygenation, and is the critical care standard. The three components of a ventilator mode Breath control variable — every mode is either: Volume control (VC): VT is