Acute and Critical Care

Original Articles

Infection
Association between emergency department–to–intensive care unit transfer time and mortality in patients with septic shock: a target trial emulation with septic shock in South Korea: Ji Hyun Cha, Danbee Kang, Ryoung-Eun Ko, Won Young Kim, Dong-gon Hyun, Yeon Joo Lee, Woo Hyun Cho, Sunghoon Park, Juhee Cho, Gee Young Suh; Acute Crit Care. 2025;40(4):548-556. Published online November 24, 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/acc.003575

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Abstract PDF Supplementary Material: Background
Emergency department (ED) overcrowding poses a global challenge, particularly for critically ill patients requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Although delays in ICU transfer increase mortality in critically ill populations, the optimal timing for septic shock remains uncertain.
Methods
We conducted a target trial emulation using a prospective cohort of 815 septic shock patients from 19 Korean hospitals. Delayed ICU transfer was defined using restricted cubic splines. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Multivariable logistic regression and inverse probability treatment weighting were used to adjust for confounders of age, sex, comorbidities, severity of illness, and mechanical ventilation use. Subgroup analyses were performed to assess the effect across patient characteristics.
Results
The median time of ED-to-ICU transfer was 6.7 hours (interquartile range, 4.7–11.4), and only 7% of patients were transferred within 3 hours. ICU transfer within 3 hours was associated with significantly lower in-hospital mortality (odds ratio, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.24–0.94) compared to later transfers. Mortality risk increased with elapsing time up to 6 hours and then plateaued. The benefit of early ICU transfer was consistent across subgroups but was particularly pronounced in patients requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or continuous renal replacement therapy (P for interaction=0.02).
Conclusions
Early ICU transfer within 3 hours significantly reduces mortality in patients with septic shock, with the greatest benefit observed in those requiring advanced organ support. These findings highlight the need for system-wide strategies to reduce ED boarding time and prioritize timely ICU admission for septic shock management.

Epidemiology
Simulating the effects of reducing transfer latency from the intensive care unit on intensive care unit bed utilization in a Korean Tertiary Hospital: Jaeyoung Choi, Song-Hee Kim, Ryoung-Eun Ko, Gee Young Suh, Jeong Hoon Yang, Chi-Min Park, Joongbum Cho, Chi Ryang Chung; Acute Crit Care. 2025;40(1):18-28. Published online February 21, 2025; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/acc.002976

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Background
Latency in transferring patients from intensive care units (ICUs) to general wards impedes the optimal allocation of ICU resources, underscoring the urgency of initiatives to reduce it. This study evaluates the extent of ICU transfer latency and assesses the potential benefits of minimizing it.
Methods
Transfer latency was measured as the time between the first transfer request and the actual ICU discharge at a single-center tertiary hospital in 2021. Computer-based simulations and cost analyses were performed to examine how reducing transfer latency could affect average hourly ICU bed occupancy, the proportion of time ICU occupancy exceeds 80%, and hospital costs. The first analysis evaluated all ICU admissions, and the second analysis targeted a subset of ICU admissions with longer transfer latency, those requiring infectious precautions.
Results
A total of 7,623 ICU admissions were analyzed, and the median transfer latency was 5.7 hours. Eliminating transfer latency for all ICU admissions would have resulted in a 32.8% point decrease in the proportion of time ICU occupancy exceeded 80%, and a potential annual savings of $6.18 million. Eliminating transfer latency for patients under infectious precautions would have decreased the time ICU occupancy exceeded 80% by 13.5% points, and reduced annual costs by a potential $1.26 million.
Conclusions
Transfer latency from ICUs to general wards might contribute to high ICU occupancy. Efforts to minimize latency for all admissions, or even for a subset of admissions with particularly long transfer latency, could enable more efficient use of ICU resources.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Association between emergency department–to–intensive care unit transfer time and mortality in patients with septic shock: a target trial emulation with septic shock in South Korea
Ji Hyun Cha, Danbee Kang, Ryoung-Eun Ko, Won Young Kim, Dong-gon Hyun, Yeon Joo Lee, Woo Hyun Cho, Sunghoon Park, Juhee Cho, Gee Young Suh
Acute and Critical Care.2025; 40(4): 548. CrossRef

CPR/Resuscitation
Prognostic significance of respiratory quotient in patients undergoing extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation in Korea: Yun Im Lee, Ryoung-Eun Ko, Soo Jin Na, Jeong-Am Ryu, Yang Hyun Cho, Jeong Hoon Yang, Chi Ryang Chung, Gee Young Suh; Acute Crit Care. 2023;38(2):190-199. Published online May 25, 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/acc.2022.01438

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Abstract PDF

Background
Respiratory quotient (RQ) may be used as a tissue hypoxia marker in various clinical settings but its prognostic significance in patients undergoing extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) is not known.
Methods
Medical records of adult patients admitted to the intensive care units after ECPR in whom RQ could be calculated from May 2004 to April 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into good neurologic outcome and poor neurologic outcome groups. Prognostic significance of RQ was compared to other clinical characteristics and markers of tissue hypoxia.
Results
During the study period, 155 patients were eligible for analysis. Of them, 90 (58.1%) had a poor neurologic outcome. The group with poor neurologic outcome had a higher incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (25.6% vs. 9.2%, P=0.010) and longer cardiopulmonary resuscitation to pump-on time (33.0 vs. 25.2 minutes, P=0.001) than the group with good neurologic outcome. For tissue hypoxia markers, the group with poor neurologic outcome had higher RQ (2.2 vs. 1.7, P=0.021) and lactate levels (8.2 vs. 5.4 mmol/L, P=0.004) than the group with good neurologic outcome. On multivariable analysis, age, cardiopulmonary resuscitation to pump-on time, and lactate levels above 7.1 mmol/L were significant predictors for a poor neurologic outcome but not RQ.
Conclusions
In patients who received ECPR, RQ was not independently associated with poor neurologic outcome.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Post-resuscitation care after adult extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A scoping review
Tommaso Scquizzato, Gioia Moscoloni, Alexander Supady, Darryl Abrams, Fabio Silvio Taccone, Claudio Sandroni, Jason Bartos, Natalie Kruit, Arianna Gazzato, Alex Rosenberg, Jae-Seung Jung, Steven Ling, Aidan Burrell, Mark Dennis, Anna Mara Scandroglio
Resuscitation.2025; 217: 110880. CrossRef
Risk factors for neurological disability outcomes in patients under extracorporeal membrane oxygenation following cardiac arrest: An observational study
Amir Vahedian-Azimi, Ibrahim Fawzy Hassan, Farshid Rahimi-Bashar, Hussam Elmelliti, Anzila Akbar, Ahmed Labib Shehata, Abdulsalam Saif Ibrahim, Ali Ait Hssain
Intensive and Critical Care Nursing.2024; 83: 103674. CrossRef
What factors are effective on the CPR duration of patients under extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation: a single-center retrospective study
Amir Vahedian-Azimi, Ibrahim Fawzy Hassan, Farshid Rahimi-Bashar, Hussam Elmelliti, Anzila Akbar, Ahmed Labib Shehata, Abdulsalam Saif Ibrahim, Ali Ait Hssain
International Journal of Emergency Medicine.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and in-hospital cardiac arrest with return of spontaneous circulation: be careful when comparing apples to oranges
Hwa Jin Cho, In Seok Jeong, Jan Bělohlávek
Acute and Critical Care.2023; 38(2): 242. CrossRef

Image in Critical Care

Pulmonary
Acute lung injury following occupational exposure to nitric acid: Ji Hoon Jang, Sung Yeon Hwang, Chi Ryang Chung, Gee Young Suh, Ryoung-Eun Ko; Acute Crit Care. 2021;36(4):395-396. Published online November 26, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/acc.2021.01557

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Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Treatment with sivelestat sodium of acute respiratory distress syndrome induced by chemical pneumonitis: A report of three cases
Liang Jing, Xi Peng, Dayong Li, Yusen Qin, Yaqin Song, Wei Zhu
Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine.2023;[Epub] CrossRef

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