Intensive Care Units (ICU) are equipped to provide advanced and specialised care and close monitoring of our most critically ill patients.
Patients admitted to ICU have often experienced severe trauma, spinal injury, burns and cardiothoracic problems, as well as complex multi-system failure who require life support for an extended period.
The Hospital Research Foundation Group is committed to helping our ICU specialists improve the outcomes of people who present with severe illness and injury, and give them the best chance of a full recovery.
Intensive Care Support
Trialling the optimum dose of Vitamin C in critically ill patients with sepsis, particularly with ‘megadoses’ which are theorised to be the most effective. Sepsis is the body’s severe response to an infection which causes damage to its own organs and tissues.
Researcher
Dr Mark Plummer hopes this study will help prevent deaths from sepsis, which affects a quarter of all patients in Australian intensive care units.
Investigating the ideal protein dose needed for critically ill patients in Intensive Care to reduce muscle atrophy and improve their overall health outcomes.
This project is analysing the effect of protein on muscle atrophy, functional recovery and survival in critically ill patients at the RAH.
Investigating the complex microbial communities that exist within the gut and upper respiratory tract of ICU patients, to help predict those who are at greater risk of severe infection and deliver rapid and effective therapy to these patients.
Researcher
Professor Geraint Rogers is assessing the microbiota composition of Intensive Care patients’ upper respiratory and intestinal systems.
Undertaking a study to determine the ideal nutritional requirements for severe burn injury patients who have undergone a new type of Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM) treatment which hopes to offer higher resistance to infections.
Research has proven that nutrition is crucial for a patient’s recovery from severe illness.
Progressing research to better understand the physiological changes of severe spinal cord injuries to help develop new surgical and therapeutic options and prevent permanent disability.
Spinal cord injuries can result from a trauma (ie. car crash) or from disease or degeneration (ie. cancer).
