A Vanderbilt study of more than 1,000 intensive care unit patients around the country, nearly three-fourths of whom experienced delirium, showed that many drugs given to sedate patients in the ICU are actually increasing their chances of — and duration of — delirium instead of helping them recover.

The cognitive impairment that affects patients who survive a stay in the ICU does not appear to have a similar mechanism to Alzheimer’s disease, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is encouraging its medical providers to stop using saline as intravenous fluid therapy for most patients, a change provoked by two companion landmark studies released Feb. 27 that are anticipated to improve survival and decrease kidney complications.

A clinical trial of an intervention for sepsis in patients in Zambia, led by Vanderbilt investigators, topped the list of 2017 trials featured by the website The Bottom Line.

Acetaminophen may offer a simple treatment to prevent tissue injury following lung transplant, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care have launched a pilot study to see if patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) can tolerate the addition of a commonly used antiviral drug to standard IPF treatments. The research team believes the drug may ultimately help slow progression of the chronic and progressive disease or reverse its course.

New findings from Vanderbilt suggest that blocking the migration of cells involved in asthma may represent a new approach for treating the respiratory condition.