Prevention of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in the surgical ICU: an American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Critical Care Committee Clinical Consensus Document

Anupamaa Seshadri; Rachel Appelbaum; Samuel P Carmichael 2nd; Michael Steven Farrell; Dina M Filiberto; Randeep Jawa; Lisa Kodadek; Samuel Mandell; M Victoria P Miles; Jasmeet Paul; Bryce Robinson; Christopher P Michetti

doi:10.1136/tsaco-2022-001010

Prevention of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in the surgical ICU: an American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Critical Care Committee Clinical Consensus Document

Trauma Surg Acute Care Open. 2022 Nov 21;7(1):e001010. doi: 10.1136/tsaco-2022-001010. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
² Department of Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
³ Department of Surgery, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁴ Surgery, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁵ Department of Surgery, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
⁶ Department of Surgery, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.
⁷ Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
⁸ Department of Surgery, Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
⁹ Department of Surgery, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
¹⁰ College of Medicine Chattanooga, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA.
¹¹ Department of Surgery, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
¹² Department of Surgery, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
¹³ Department of Surgery, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia, USA.

Abstract

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome is a common and challenging clinical entity present in trauma and surgical intensive care unit (ICU) patients. The screening tools, assessment strategies, and pharmacological methods for preventing alcohol withdrawal have significantly changed during the past 20 years. This Clinical Consensus Document created by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Critical Care Committee reviews the best practices for screening, monitoring, and prophylactic treatment of alcohol withdrawal in the surgical ICU.

Keywords: alcohol; critical care; practice guideline; surgical.