Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1989
Comparative StudyA randomized comparison of total extracorporeal CO2 removal with conventional mechanical ventilation in experimental hyaline membrane disease.
Apnoeic oxygenation (AO) combined with extracorporeal CO2 removal (ECCO2R), using venovenous perfusion across a membrane area of 0.1 m2 has been shown to be feasible in six healthy anaesthetized rabbits. In a further twelve rabbits, ECCO2R has been randomly compared with conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV) following saline lavage to induce respiratory failure. Blood gases were maintained for up to 6 h within the same range (PaO2 = 8-20 kPa, PaCO2 = 4-6 kPa) in two groups of six by varying airway pressures and the oxygen fraction delivered either to the membrane lung (ECCO2R group) or to the ventilator (CMV group). ⋯ CMV subjects deteriorated and had 80% mortality. Hyaline membranes were absent from ECCO2R subjects and present in all CMV subjects. The response to SI suggests that a lung volume recruitment is maintained during AO for up to 1 h but is ineffective during CMV.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1989
Effect of pressure support ventilation on breathing patterns and respiratory work.
We assessed the effect of pressure support ventilation (PSV) on breathing patterns and the work of breathing in 10 postoperative patients. Minute ventilation (VE) increased by 8% with 5 cm H2O PSV and 10% with 10 cm H2O PSV compared to 0 cm H2O PSV. The increase in VE was achieved by increased mean inspiratory flow (24% with 5 cm H2O PSV and 67% with 10 cm H2O PSV) and a decrease in duty cycle (13% with 5 cm H2O PSV and 39% with 10 cm H2O PSV). ⋯ Furthermore, the inspiratory work added by the ventilator was near zero with 5 cm H2O PSV and 10 cm H2O PSV. Oxygen consumption also decreased significantly with 5 cm H2O PSV. We conclude that PSV improves the breathing patterns and minimizes the work of breathing spontaneously via a ventilator.
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Several immunological factors affect the outcome of human kidney transplants. HLA-A, -B and -DR matching improves kidney graft survival rate, especially matching for HLA-DR antigens. The beneficial effect of pretransplant blood transfusion has been confirmed although the mechanisms of the beneficial effect are not clear. ⋯ Major improvements in the results of organ transplantation have been achieved during the past few years with the use of new immunosuppressive agents, namely cyclosporin and monoclonal antibodies reacting with T lymphocytes. Both agents act selectively on T lymphocytes. However, nephrotoxicity of cyclosporin may limit its use.
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A minitracheotomy tube was inadvertently placed in the oesophagus of a 22-year-old woman with cystic fibrosis. The authors discuss how this may have occurred and ways of avoiding this complication.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1989
Intensive care for children after orthotopic liver transplantation.
We report our experience in the management of children after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). From 03/84 to 04/87 50 patients (pts) were transplanted. Mean age was 4 3/12 years (8/12 to 13 2/12) and mean body weight 14.7 kg (5.8 to 40). ⋯ Problems related to the functioning of the graft included: Primary non-function of the graft (4 pts), hepatic artery thrombosis (8 pts) and severe acute rejection unresponsive to therapy (1 pt); these situations needed to be recognised early in order to organize a second OLT. Other causes of hepatic dysfunction were: portal vein thrombosis (1 pt), biliary tract obstruction (2 pts), angiocholitis (3 pts), right hepatic lobe necrosis (2 pts). Acute hepatic insufficiency in 7 children.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)