Welcome to the first ever podcast from Critical Care Practitioner. This is an exciting project for me and I hope one that will continue to develop and improve over time. The intention is to cover a variety of subjects from those directly linked to critical care such as research, learning resources, websites involved in critical care, and interviews with those involved not just in critical care but also those people who have an influence in their area of interest. It is hoped over time that the listener can become involved in the content and help direct best practice as a result.
The main part of this first episode is an interview with Teresa Chinn, an innovator and nurse who started the @WeNurses project which is a very active group on Twitter holding regular chats around a variety of subjects. This is a fascinating interview and well worth a listen.
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Tom, one of my colleagues from the Critical Care Outreach Team and I discuss this paper and its findings reaching our own conclusions. Deferring Arterial Catheterisation in Patients with Septic Shock.
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We return to our 48-year-old patient: jaundiced, hypotensive, drowsy, and bleeding. In decompensated cirrhosis, every treatment targets a disrupted system — splanchnic vasodilation, portal hypertension, toxin accumulation, and renal hypoperfusion.Although these patients look fluid overloaded, they are effectively hypovolaemic. Start with small aliquots of balanced crystalloid, avoiding 0.9% saline. In hepatorenal syndrome or tense ascites, 20% albumin is
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In this episode, I walk through the real-world critical care management of acute decompensated alcohol-related liver disease, using a high-risk ICU case to anchor the discussion. The focus is on understanding the underlying physiology—portal hypertension, rebalanced haemostasis, hepatic encephalopathy, infection, and hepatorenal syndrome—and translating that physiology into clear first-hour priorities at the bedside. Listeners are
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