ArticleCritical care medicine2017
The ABCDEF Bundle: Science and Philosophy of How ICU Liberation Serves Patients and Families.
Article in Critical care medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 185 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Flumazenil on Hypoactive Delirium in the ICU: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study
Nursing Intervention to Reduce Incidence and Duration of Delirium in Patients in Intensive Care
Modified Hospital Elder Life Program at Intensive Care Unit: A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
185 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Can we improve delirium prevention and treatment in the emergency department? A systematic review.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2022Pooled it
- Delirium-related distress in the ICU: A qualitative meta-synthesis of patient and family perspectives and experiences.International journal of nursing studies · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Managing ICU surge during the COVID-19 crisis: rapid guidelines.Intensive care medicine · 2020Guideline
- Association between ABCDE bundle compliance and long-term outcomes: a secondary longitudinal analysis.Intensive care medicine · 2026Trial
- Comparison of SAT and SBT Conduct During the ABC Trial and PILOT Trial.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2025Trial
- Effect of early mobilisation on long-term cognitive impairment in critical illness in the USA: a randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Respiratory medicine · 2023Trial
- Prophylactic melatonin for delirium in intensive care (Pro-MEDIC): a randomized controlled trial.Intensive care medicine · 2022Trial
- Haloperidol and Ziprasidone for Treatment of Delirium in Critical Illness.The New England journal of medicine · 2018Trial
- Delirium prediction in the intensive care unit: comparison of two delirium prediction models.Critical care (London, England) · 2018Trial
- A narrative‑informed Intensive Care Unit humanizing intervention: trainee perspectives on the 'Get to Know Me Board'.ATS scholar · 2026Article
- Critical care delirium: prevention, identification and management: a narrative review.Anaesthesia · 2026Review
- Caregiver Perceptions of the Transition From Paediatric Intensive to Acute Care.Nursing in critical care · 2026Article
- The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS): epidemiology, etiology, molecular mechanisms, diagnosis and therapeutic strategies.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Remimazolam besylate in the intensive care unit: emerging evidence, unresolved questions, and a potential clinical niche.Intensive care medicine · 2026Article
- Burden of and risk factors for neurological complications in critical illness.Intensive care medicine · 2026Review
- Early Mobilization and Rehabilitation Practices of Adult Patients Admitted to the ICU in Japan: A 1-Day Multicenter Point-Prevalence Study.Critical care explorations · 2026Article
- Article
- Beginning Restorative Activities Very Early: A Quality Improvement Project to Advance ABCDEF Bundle Practice in a Pediatric Oncology Intensive Care Unit.Pediatric reports · 2026Article
- Beyond Survival: Lessons From a Research Journey in Critical Care Recovery Science.American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses · 2026Article
125 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Over the past 20 years, critical care has matured in a myriad of ways resulting in dramatically higher survival rates for our sickest patients. For millions of new survivors comes de novo suffering and disability called "the postintensive care syndrome." Patients with postintensive care syndrome are robbed of their normal cognitive, emotional, and physical capacity and cannot resume their previous life. The ICU Liberation Collaborative is a real-world quality improvement initiative being implemented across 76 ICUs designed to engage strategically the ABCDEF bundle through team- and evidence-based care. This article explains the science and philosophy of liberating ICU patients and families from harm that is both inherent to critical illness and iatrogenic. ICU liberation is an extensive program designed to facilitate the implementation of the pain, agitation, and delirium guidelines using the evidence-based ABCDEF bundle. Participating ICU teams adapt data from hundreds of peer-reviewed studies to operationalize a systematic and reliable methodology that shifts ICU culture from the harmful inertia of sedation and restraints to an animated ICU filled with patients who are awake, cognitively engaged, and mobile with family members engaged as partners with the ICU team at the bedside. In doing so, patients are "liberated" from iatrogenic aspects of care that threaten his or her sense of self-worth and human dignity. The goal of this 2017 plenary lecture at the 47th Society of Critical Care Medicine Congress is to provide clinical ICU teams a synthesis of the literature that led to the creation of ICU liberation philosophy and to explain how this patient- and family-centered, quality improvement program is novel, generalizable, and practice changing.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.