Individualised analgesia, sedation, delirium and comfort management strategies in the ICU: a narrative review

This group is a product of the collaboration agreement signed by SOMIAMA (Sociedad de Medicina Intensiva de Madrid) and SAR MADRID (Sociedad de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor de Madrid) under which the organisations agreed to create joint working groups to improve critical patient care. Pain, discomfort, agitation, and delirium cause suffering, delay discharge, and can lead to serious complications in patients admitted to medical and surgical critical care units and post-anaesthesia care units. The main objectives in this type of unit include: Ensuring the comfort of patients suffering or recovering from a critical illness.Avoiding complications associated with the measures, particularly pharmacological, taken to ensure that comfort.

[Antiplatelet therapy: resistance to traditional antiaggregation drugs and role of new antiplatelet agents]

Platelet aggregation plays a key role in the development of major cardiovascular events (MACE) related to atherothrombosis. Since the appearance of coronary stenting, the importance of measuring and modulating platelet activity has considerably increased in the scientific literature during the last decade. Double antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel administrated to stent carriers has widely demonstrated its efficacy in the prevention of MACE compared with aspirin alone. These benefits are also present when a conservatory approach is chosen for acute coronary syndrome management. However, there are an important number of patients who develop MACE despite optimal dual antiplatelet therapy, most likely related to an incomplete platelet activity inhibition. Many studies suggest an important inter-individual variability in the response to the drugs, maybe related, at least in part, to the use of different assessment techniques of platelet aggregation. Other authors suggest an incomplete platelet inhibition as a possible explanation for the presence of MACE in patients under optimal antiplatelet therapy. Resistance to usual drugs has become a clinically relevant issue that requires an individual approach where new antiplatelet agents, such as prasugrel or ticagrelor, could play an important role as stated in current consensus documents.