Why Physiology Is Never Enough: The Siren Song of Critical Care The MARCH Trial Critical Care Reviews Blog 8    |    July 12th, 2026  |   Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The Music Before the Rocks The Sirens did not lure sailors because they sang badly. They were dangerous because they sang beautifully. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus knows that the Sirens’ song will be irresistible. He does not pretend he is immune...

VITAMIN C - A Love Story Vitamin C in Critical Illness Critical Care Reviews Blog 5    |    October 17th, 2025  |  Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Image: Shutterstock | Medical-R Vitamin C – A Love Story Every generation of clinicians inherits a remedy that seems to promise more than mere biology should allow. For our forebears at sea it was citrus, the difference between life and death on a latish...

Faith, Evidence and the Stars: The ANDROMEDA‑SHOCK‑2 Trial Capillary Refill Testing in Septic Shock Critical Care Reviews Blog 6    |    November 7th, 2025  |  Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Image: Shutterstock | Wirestock Creators “And yet it moves.” Galileo’s whispered defiance captured a paradox that has animated science for four centuries: belief colliding with observation, dogma yielding—slowly, sometimes...

The Last Drop The REMAP CAP Ivermectin for COVID-19 Trial The Science of Stopping Critical Care Reviews Blog 7    |    May 13th, 2026  |  Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Figure 1: Junius Brutus Stearns, Washington on his Deathbed, 1851. Oil on canvas  | Wikimedia. On the morning of December 14th, 1799, George Washington was not abandoned by medicine. He was surrounded by it. His physicians bled him repeatedly,...

The Etomidate Conundrum Etomidate for Rapid Sequence Intubation in the Critically Ill. Critical Care Reviews Blog 4    |    September 4th, 2025 Rob Mac Sweeney twitter vimeo instagram social This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. social                                                           Image: Shutterstock | JFontan The Etomidate Conundrum Induction for rapid sequence intubation (RSI) in the critically ill often feels like the swing of a...

Archive CCR Blog Image: Shutterstock / PeopleImages 2026 Why Physiology Is Never Enough. The Siren Song of Critical Care The Sirens of intensive care sing seductive physiology. Their song is beautiful: thin the mucus, recruit the lung, normalise the number, restore the pressure. The MARCH trial asks what happens when that music meets the whole patient. Carbocisteine and hypertonic saline made sense for difficult airway secretions, yet neither shortened mechanical ventilation, and both were associated with harm. That is why trials matter: they capture the effects we hoped for, and the...

Critical Care Reviews Blog Exploring the why of critical care trials Critical care trials are fascinating to ponder. Some report findings of benefit with the investigational intervention, many report an inconclusive answer or apparent lack of efficacy. Some report harm. This blog will explore the why of critical care trials - why was this intervention successful, why was this intervention ineffective, why was the trial drug harmful. Join us for a weekly in-depth exploration of the latest major critical care trials. Blog 1 will be released Monday, October 4th The REST Trial ECCO2R...

The REST Trial Ultra-Low Tidal Volume Ventilation & Extracorporeal CO2 Removal McNamee JJ, Gillies MA, Barrett NA, Perkins GD, Tunnicliffe W, et al. Effect of Lower Tidal Volume Ventilation Facilitated by Extracorporeal Carbon Dioxide Removal vs Standard Care Ventilation on 90-Day Mortality in Patients With Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure. The REST Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2021;326(11):1013-1023 Critical Care Reviews Blog 1    |    October 4th, 2021  |  Rob Mac Sweeney social social social ...

Fragility Index The minimum number of subjects whose status would have to change from a non-event to an event to convert a statistically significant result of the trial into a non-significant result This guest post by Dr Ed Palmer was originally posted on June 29th, 2022, on his blog. It has been reposted here with his permission. Critical Care Reviews Blog 2    |    August 1st, 2022  |  Ed Palmer - Guest Post social social social social social social social Brian A....