The saccharin test was used to measure mucociliary clearance in 50 patients with symptoms of chronic sinusitis. Samples of the nasal mucosa were also examined under transmission electron microscopy before and after functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). Before surgery, the mean saccharin clearance (ST) was 37.0 +/- 15.7 min, with nasal mucosa exhibiting ciliary loss as well as other ultrastructural changes. Three months after surgery, the mean ST had improved to 20.3 +/- 7.5 min and significant regeneration of cilia was observed. It was therefore concluded that FESS had successfully corrected mucociliary dysfunction in these patients.

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Background and Objectives:A critically ill patient is treated and reviewed by physicians from different specialties; hence, polypharmacy is a very common. This study was conducted to assess the impact and effectiveness of having a clinical pharmacist in an Indian Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It also evaluates the clinical pharmacist interventions with a focus on optimizing the quality of pharmacotherapy and patient safety.Materials and Methods:The prospective, observational study was carried out in medical and surgical/trauma ICU over a period of 1 year. All detected drug-related problems and interventions were categorized based on the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe system.Results:During the study period, average monthly census of 1032 patients got treated in the ICUs. A total of 986 pharmaceutical interventions due to drug-related problems were documented, whereof medication errors accounted for 42.6% (n = 420), drug of choice problem 15.4% (n = 152), drug-drug interactions were 15.1% (n = 149), Y-site drug incompatibility was 13.7% (n = 135), drug dosing problems were 4.8% (n = 47), drug duplications reported were 4.6% (n = 45), and adverse drug reactions documented were 3.8% (n = 38). Drug dosing adjustment done by the clinical pharmacist included 140 (11.9%) renal dose, 62 (5.2%) hepatic dose, 17 (1.4%) pediatric dose, and 104 (8.8%) insulin dosing modifications. A total of 577 drug and poison information queries were answered by the clinical pharmacist.Conclusion:Clinical pharmacist as a part of multidisciplinary team in our study was associated with a substantially lower rate of adverse drug event caused by medication errors, drug interactions, and drug incompatibilities.

Intensive care unit (ICU) healthcare professionals work under a stressful environment which can lead to burnout syndrome. We conducted this study to evaluate the prevalence of stress and burnout syndrome among doctors and other healthcare professionals in ICU. We also evaluated the individual contributing factors for stress and burnout syndrome among these ICU healthcare workers. The cross-sectional survey was conducted among the healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, clinical pharmacists, respiratory therapists and physiotherapists) in the ICUs of multispecialty hospital in south India. The survey was conducted using well-accepted tools which included job satisfaction scale, perceived stress scale and Maslach burnout inventory–human service survey. Overall, 204 healthcare professionals completed the survey. The prevalence of high burnout in our study was 80% which included 6% (n = 12) of doctors and 69% (n = 140) of nurses. Our study showed statistically significant correlation between level of job satisfaction and the level of burnout. There was a significant correlation between the level of stress and the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization domains of Maslach burnout inventory. Critical care societies and institutional committees should step forward to draft policies and benchmarks to curb the causes of stress, reduce burnout and to increase the job satisfaction.How to cite this articleLakshmikanthcharan S, Sivakumar MN, Hisham M. Stress and Burnout among Intensive Care Unit Healthcare Professionals in an Indian Tertiary Care Hospital. Indian J Crit Care Med 2019;23(10):462–466.

Aims The aim of this study is to evaluate the utilization and success in therapy intensification after initiation of sacubitril/valsartan using a specified protocol within an advanced heart failure and transplant programme in the Middle East Gulf Region. Methods and results We studied a single‐centre, retrospective cohort in a 364‐bedded multi‐speciality hospital located in the United Arab Emirates (February 2016 to July 2017). The advanced heart failure and transplant programme formulated an institutional protocol for initiation of sacubitril/valsartan with defined criteria for switching from angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) and angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). Prescribing this drug is intended for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction with left ventricular ejection fraction ≤40%. We excluded patients (i) with age below 18 years or (ii) initiated on sacubitril/valsartan from an outside hospital with or without follow‐up in our outpatient clinic. We included 102 patients with an average initial dose of 78.9 ± 44.2 mg twice daily. Only 17 patients were on target doses of ACEI or ARB prior to switching to sacubitril/valsartan. Up‐titration was successful in 55 patients during the follow‐up period. In addition, 6.9% patients were hospitalized with heart failure exacerbation. In patients with elevated baseline serum potassium prior to initiating this medication, the serum potassium levels decreased post‐initiation by 0.5 ± 0.3 mmol/L (P = 0.0008). Conclusions Initiating sacubitril/valsartan through a defined protocol selects for appropriate candidates and guides starting dose and titration. Overall, significant success can be achieved in replacing ACEI or ARB by sacubitril/valsartan in symptomatic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction patients.