Article

Loss of muscle mass in critically ill patients is associated with
serious consequences, such as prolonged mechanical ventilation, intensive care
unit confinement, and higher mortality. Thus, monitoring muscle mass, and
especially its decline, should provide a useful indicator of morbidity and
mortality. Performing evaluations according only to body mass index is imperfect,
therefore the aim of this article was to evaluate appropriate methods for muscle
mass loss determination in ICU patients. METHODS: For this review, the literature
searches were conducted through Embase and Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar
databases up to February 2018 for the following Medical Subject Headings terms
muscle atrophy, protein catabolism, ICU-aquaired weakness, muscle muss loss,
myolysis, critical illness, stress metabolism, computed tomography, magnetic
resonance imaging, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, neutron activation analysis,
anthropometric examination, determination of endogenous metabolites of the
skeletal muscles, bioimpedance spectroscopy, ultrasound. RESULT: It appears that
ultrasound, which is widely available in hospitals, is the most advantageous
method. Muscle ultrasound is non-invasive, relatively inexpensive, and is a
bedside method that is free of ionizing radiation. Furthermore, muscle ultrasound
also seems to be valid in patients with severe fluid retention, which is a typical complication with other conventional methods. CONCLUSION: Early detection
of critical illness neuromyo-pathy could be beneficial for improving the
standards of intensive care, and thus reducing the risk of mortality in these patients.

Langue : ANGLAIS