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Evidence-Based Medicine in ICU

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Infection Control in the Intensive Care Unit
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Abstract

In intensive care, there have been many clinical trials evaluating numerous new therapies and much data generated. How is all this data to be evaluated and which specific treatment options should be chosen? This is where evidenced-based medicine comes to the fore. It involves integrating clinical expertise, best research evidence and patient values. Clinical expertise involves the ability to use clinical skills and past experience to identify risks and benefits of potential interventions. Best research evidence includes relevant clinical research into accuracy and specificity of diagnostic tests and the power of the prediction of these tests, either science based or patient centred. Patient values involve concerns and expectations of each patient, which must be best integrated into clinical decisions. We screened intensive care unit literature using these Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation rules for manoeuvres that may impact on infectious morbidity and mortality. We classified the most common manoeuvres according to levels of evidence and grades of recommendations.

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Petros, A.J., Lowry, K.G., van Saene, H.K.F., Marshall, J.C. (2011). Evidence-Based Medicine in ICU. In: van Saene, H., Silvestri, L., de la Cal, M., Gullo, A. (eds) Infection Control in the Intensive Care Unit. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1601-9_30

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