Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1983
Synchronized intermittent mandatory insufflation of the endotracheal tube cuff.
Continuous inflation of endotracheal tube cuffs causes tracheal injury in up to 11% of intubated patients. To avoid this complication and its consequences of tracheal and laryngeal stenosis and tracheoesophageal fistula, we designed a simple device which enables intermittent inflation of the cuff during inspiratory periods of mechanical ventilation. ⋯ We have used the device in 25 patients with prolonged intubation. There was no air leak around the tube, no aspiration of gastric content, and no late complications as shown by direct laryngoscopy at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after extubation, and by X-ray of the upper airway.
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The effects of continuous and supplementary bolus dose administration of etomidate have been investigated in ten artificially ventilated patients in traumatic coma. Continuous infusion of etomidate (5-25 micrograms/kg/min) proved to be a practical and safe means of sedating these patients and appeared to control moderately elevated ICP. Additional bolus doses of etomidate (0.2 mg/kg) always reduced acutely elevated ICP (greater than 20 mmHg), which fell by a mean of 33%. ⋯ However, when the bolus of etomidate was not given, occasional dramatic and dangerous rises in ICP were seen, in spite of the infusion, during which CPP fell to critical levels. This very rarely occurred when the bolus had been given. Furthermore, serious episodes of hypotension in response to etomidate administration appeared to occur mainly in patients who were relatively hypo-volaemic.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1983
Comparative StudyThe use of continuous flow of oxygen and PEEP during apnea in the diagnosis of brain death.
The establishment of apnea for the diagnosis of brain death by disconnecting the patient from the ventilator may lead to dangerous hypoxemia at the end of the test period. We established apnea for 4 min in 8 patients with suspected brain death, both by disconnecting them from the ventilator after 10 min ventilation with FIO2 = 1.0 (method "A"), and by leaving them attached to an IMV ventilator circuit with a continuous flow of 100% O2 and PEEP of 4-8 cm H2O without mechanical ventilation (method "B"). ⋯ The changes in PaCO2 and pH were similar following both apneic methods. We conclude that it is safer to test for apnea by leaving the patients on a continuous flow of 100% oxygen and low PEEP than to disconnect them from the ventilator.
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Intensive care medicine · Mar 1982
Comparative StudyA comparative study of the cardiorespiratory effects of continuous positive airway pressure breathing and continuous positive pressure ventilation in acute respiratory failure.
Positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) produces cardiopulmonary effects whether administered by controlled positive pressure ventilation (CPPV) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). In eight patients with acute respiratory failure, the effects of 20 cm PEEP administered via CPPV and CPAP were compared. An esophageal balloon was used to calculate the transmural vascular pressures. ⋯ The two different modes of ventilation (CPPV and CPAP) gave identical blood gas improvement through the same level of end expiratory transpulmonary pressure despite marked differences between absolute mean airway and esophageal pressures. Conversely, hemodynamic tolerance was very different from one technique to the other: CPPV depressed cardiac index from 3.4 +/- 0.3 to 2.4 +/- 0.2 1/min/m2 as well as decreasing transmural filling pressures, suggesting a reduction in venous return. Conversely, filling pressures maintained at control values during CPAP and cardiac indexes were unchanged.