Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
Clinical TrialPattern of spontaneous breathing: potential marker for weaning outcome. Spontaneous breathing pattern and weaning from mechanical ventilation.
To quantitatively assess the spontaneous breathing (SB) pattern, during minimal ventilatory support, of patients who pass or fail weaning trials from mechanical ventilation. ⋯ The spontaneous breathing pattern during minimal mechanical ventilatory support is more chaotic in patients who failed extubation trials compared to patients who passed extubation trials. Thus, we speculate that characterizing the SB pattern during minimal ventilatory support might be a useful tool in differentiating between extubation success and failure.
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To document the changes in patterns of airway accidents in intubated patients. ⋯ We noted a change of the pattern of airway accidents. We noted an increasing trend in the incidence of blocked tracheal tubes, associated with an increased duration of heat and moisture exchanger-filters use. We also noted that the incidence of tracheostomy tube accidents was similar to that of ETT accidents in the current study, unlike the earlier study where tracheostomy tube accidents were more frequent than ETT accidents. This was due to the elimination of tracheostomy tube displacements during the later study period. We associated this with the use of adjustable tracheostomy length tubes.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
Impact of an electronic information system on physician workflow and data collection in the intensive care unit.
To test the hypotheses that: (1) integrating information processing tasks using an electronic clinical information system (ECIS) decreases time to complete these tasks by hand; and (2) structured data entry encourages generation of more detailed records and capture of specific data elements even when entry is voluntary. ⋯ Electronic and handwritten documentation consumed equal amounts of time. Structured entry, compared to handwriting, may encourage recording of specific or otherwise unincorporated data elements resulting in a more detailed record. This suggests that user interfaces and decision support components may influence both the types and complexity of clinical data recorded by caregivers.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
ReviewInternational Consensus Conferences in Intensive Care Medicine: non-invasive positive pressure ventilation in acute respiratory failure. Organised jointly by the American Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, and the Société de Réanimation de Langue Française, and approved by the ATS Board of Directors, December 2000.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 2001
Plasma glutamine depletion and patient outcome in acute ICU admissions.
To evaluate whether low plasma glutamine (PG) is related to severity of illness, and actual and predicted hospital mortality. ⋯ Low PG at acute ICU admission is related to higher age, shock as primary diagnosis, and higher hospital mortality. Low PG represents a risk of poor outcome, not fully reflected in the presently used mortality prediction systems.