The American journal of medicine
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To heighten awareness of the role of Mycoplasma hominis as an extragenital pathogen in adults. ⋯ Our experience suggests that significant infections due to M. hominis, although uncommon, are not rare, and methods to isolate and identify this organism should be available for general adult medical and surgical populations.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of external factors on physicians' life-support decisions. "External factors" are those factors that promote the interests of people other than the patient. Examples of external factors include physician legal liability and family wishes about patient care. ⋯ External factors impact the life-support decisions of physicians. Physician legal liability may have an especially great impact on these decisions when patients' preferences are not known.
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To determine the frequency and to identify predictive factors of occult major illness in febrile intravenous drug users (IVDUs) presenting to an emergency room. ⋯ Clinical tests and physician assessments are unable to distinguish occult major illness from minor illness among febrile IVDUs at presentation. Occult major illness is best identified by blood culture. If patient follow-up is unreliable, then hospitalization of febrile IVDUs, while awaiting blood culture results, remains a wise policy.
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Acute respiratory failure necessitating intubation and mechanical ventilation in patients with acute severe asthma is relatively uncommon, and there are few data available regarding positive pressure ventilation in critically ill patients with asthma. We therefore decided to evaluate our experience with the use of mechanical ventilation for acute asthma and to critically review previous reports on this subject. ⋯ Although there appears to be a trend toward increased survival after mechanical ventilation for acute asthma, ventilation of critically ill asthmatic patients continues to be a potentially perilous venture associated with significant morbidity and mortality.