Mater Dei Hospital

The investigators will be performing an international prospective, observational, multi-centre, cross-sectional study to determine the actual duration of preoperative liquid fasting time in European patients.
Research has shown that prolonged fasting, particularly for liquids, is likely harmful to patients before, during, and after an operation. Harm from prolonged fasting for liquids includes dehydration, dysregulated blood sugar levels, increased stress response, and postoperative complications. Recent studies show an average preoperative fasting time for liquids that are significantly longer than necessary.
Reducing fasting time is associated with improved patient well-being, a smoother perioperative course, shorter hospital stays, cost savings, and enhanced environmental sustainability.
The investigators hypothesize that excessive preoperative fasting is still common practice in most European countries and would like to investigate the actual length of liquid fasting practices amongst patients in Europe, to determine whether the current guidelines are being followed.

Sepsis is a complex syndrome that causes lethal organ dysfunction due to an abnormal host response to infection. No drug specifically targeting sepsis has been approved. The heterogeneity in sepsis pathophysiology hinders the identification of patients who would benefit, or be harmed, from specific therapeutic interventions. Recent clinical genomics studies have shown that sepsis patients can be stratified as molecular endotypes, or subclasses, with important clinical implications. Classifying sepsis patients as molecular endotypes revealed that a poor prognosis endotype was characterized by immunosuppression and septic shock. Against this backdrop, the study hypothesis is that a poor prognosis for sepsis is defined by a molecular endotype reflecting impaired innate immune and endothelial barrier integrity in the primary anatomical site of infection.

An observational cohort study of patients discharged from the ICU following admission with COVID19 infection, looking at their medical wellbeing 6 months after discharge from the ICU.