Web site designed and maintained by Chris Cairns  © SICS EBM Group 2004                                  

SICS EBMG Annual Report  

2006/07

2007 brought several landmarks for the SICS Evidence-Based Medicine Group (EBMG). The group held its’ fifth annual meeting and the website claimed its 2,000,000^th hit in this, its fifth year. With these 5 year landmarks in mind it’s probably time to recap the last five years and then look forward to the next 5 years! 

After a couple of years of preliminary work the group really went “live”  with the launch of the website in early 2003 (www.sicsebm.org.uk). The aim of the group from the outset was to provide a user friendly EBM resource for the busy clinician. This has been provided in two main formats which are published on the site: (a) Reviews – evidence-based reviews of ICM topics, and (b) CATs (Critically Appraised Topics) – reviews of single papers in an easy to read, universal format avoiding the need to troll through the many medical journals to keep up-to-date. Both formats have proved popular. The number of reviews and CATs on the site has increased rapidly. There are now over 180 CATs on the site which capture the majority of significant papers published over the last 5 years. All the publications are peer reviewed and go through a standard editorial and review process. If you are considering submitting a CAT the please do. We are happy to help budding submitters through the process. Those who have got over the first CAT hurdle have often gone on to produce many more. 

The groups annual meeting is now a regular event in June, shared with the SICS research group. The two groups have complemented each other well leading to varied programmes and stimulating discussions both during the meeting and the annual dinner. This year from the EBM camp there were review presented on METS and Outreach (Richard Price), APRV ventilation (Martyn Hawkins) and HFOV (Kevin Sim) as well as CAT presentations by Rachel Kearns, Katrina Bramley, Erin Innes and Pauline O’Neil.  

Over the last couple of years the EBMG had been working in collaboration with the ICS and its journal; JICS. We now oversee the CATs that are published in JICS. It has been encouraging to see that the proportion of CATs in JICS that have their origins north of the boarder has increased steadily over those two years. 

So all seems quite health at the moment. What of the future? We hope that the discussion forum, created last year, continues to stimulate and encourage debate. If you would like to join the forum then please send a request to icu_ebm-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk or visit http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/icu_ebm/. We look forward to the completion of several reviews which are currently in the pipeline and hope that the number of CATs submitted continues to increase in order to capture new papers as they appear in the journals. 

I’d like to finish by thanking all of you who have submitted work to the site (this years publications are summarized below) and those of you who have helped in the review and editing process. I look forward to receiving even more in 2008 and seeing as many as possible of you at the next meeting in June.

Dr Chris Cairns

Chair, SICS EBMG (on behalf of the EBNG steering group)

September 2007 

SICS EBM publications : Dec 2006-Sept 2007

•  Vinsonneau C, Camus C, Combes A, et al, on behalf of the Hemodiafe Study Group. Continuous venovenous haemodiafiltration versus intermittent haemodialysis for acute renal failure in patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome: a multicentre randomised trial. Lancet 2006; 368: 379-85. by Chris Cairns & Rachel Kearns
• Hochman JS, Sleeper LA, Webb JG et al for the SHOCK Trial Investigators. Early Revascularisation and Long-Term Survival in Cardiogenic Shock Complicating Acute Myocardial Infarction. JAMA 2006; 295: 2511-15. by Stephen Harris.
• Nava S, Gregoretti C, Fanfulla F, Squadrone E, Grassi M, Carlucci A, Beltrame F, Navalesi P. Noninvasive ventilation to prevent respiratory failure after extubation in high-risk patients. Crit Care Med 2005; 33: 2465-2470. by Andrew Cadamy.
• The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) Clinical Trials Network. Comparison of Two Fluid-Management Strategies in Acute Lung Injury. NEJM 2006; 354:2564-2575 by Peter Hersey
• The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) Clinical Trials Network. Pulmonary-Artery versus Central Venous Catheter to Guide Treatment of Acute Lung Injury. NEJM 2006; 354:2213-2224 by Peter Hersey.
• Early Non-invasive Ventilation Averts Extubation Failure in Patients at Risk. A Randomised Controlled Trial. Ferrer M, et al. Am J Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Jan 2006. Vol 173.pp 164-170 by Pam Doherty
• Multi-centre, cluster-randomized clinical trial of algorithms for critical-care enteral and parenteral therapy (ACCEPT). Claudio M. Martin et al for the Southwestern Ontario Critical Care Research Network. Canadian Medical Association Journal   2004: 170; 197-204 by Marcia McDougall.
• De Gans J, et al. Dexamethasone in Adults with Bacterial Meningitis. NEngl J Med 2002; 347: 1549-56 by Celia Bygrave and Chris Cairns.
• Ranucci M, et al. Impact of oligon central venous catheters on catheter colonization and catheter-related bloodstream infection. Crit Care Med 2003; 31: 52-9 by David Swann.
• Solanki P. Chawla A. Garg R. Gupta R. Jain M. Sarin SK. Beneficial effects of terlipressin in hepatorenal syndrome: a prospective, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 18(2):152-6, 2003 by Ewan Jack.
• Ronco C, et al. Effects of different doses in continuous veno-venous haemofiltration on outcomes of acute renal failure: a prospective randomised trial. Lancet 2000 Vol 356 (9223) 26-30 by Ewan Jack.
• Rhodes A, et al. A Randomised controlled trial of the pulmonary artery catheter in critically ill patients. Intensive Care Med. 2002;28:256-264 by Nityanand Lanka.

·         Angstwurm, M.W.A, et al. Selenium in Intensive Care (SIC): Results of a prospective randomized, placebo-controlled, multiple-centre study in patients with severe systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis and septic shock. Crit Care Med (2007) 35: 118 – 126 by Stephan Dalchow

·         A Randomised Trial of Diagnostic Techniques for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia. The Canadian Critical Care Trials Group; NEJM 2006, 355: 2619 – 2630 by Srikanth Chukkambotla and Imelda Galvin.

·         Chan EY, Ruest A, O’Meade M, Cook DJ. Oral decontamination for prevention of pneumonia in mechanically ventilated adults: review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2007; 334:889-893 by Rachel Kearns

·         The SAFE study investigators.  Effect of baseline serum albumin concentration on outcome of resuscitation with albumin or saline in patients in intensive care units: analysis of data from the saline versus albumin fluid evaluation (SAFE) study.  BMJ 2006; 333: 1044-49 by Erin Innes and Brian Cuthbertson.

·         NKJ Adhikari, KEA Burns, JO Friedrich, JT Granton, Cook DJ, MO Meade.  Effect of nitric oxide on oxygenation and mortality in acute lung injury: systematic review and meta-analysis BMJ, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39139.716794.55 by Katrina Bramley.

·         Parenteral vs. enteral nutrition in the critically ill patient: a meta-analysis of trials using the intention to treat principle.  Intensive Care Medicine 2005; 31: 12-23.  F. Simpson and G.S. Doig by Marcia McDougal

·         Gao F, Melody T et al. The impact of compliance with 6-hour and 24-hour sepsis bundles on hospital mortality in patients with severe sepsis: a prospective observational study. Critical Care 2005, 9:R764-R770 (DOI 10.1186/cc3909) by Rachel Kearns.