Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Mar 1993
Enteral nutrition with simultaneous gastric decompression in critically ill patients.
Early enteral nutrition is an important adjunct in the care of critically ill patients. A double-lumen gastrostomy tube with a duodenal extension has been reported to enable early enteral feeding with simultaneous gastroduodenal decompression. We tested the ability of this device to achieve these goals in critically ill patients. ⋯ These data do not support the use of this device for early enteral feeding and simultaneous gastric decompression in critically ill patients.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 1993
Near drowning: is emergency department cardiopulmonary resuscitation or intensive care unit cerebral resuscitation indicated?
a) To report the neurologic outcome of a series of near-drowning victims treated with supportive management without aggressive cerebral resuscitation; and b) to identify patient characteristics that indicate prognosis and guide therapy at the scene, the Emergency Department, and in the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ Our results cast further doubt on the utility of aggressive forms of cerebral monitoring and resuscitation and emphasize the need for initial full resuscitation in the Emergency Department.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 1993
The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II classification system is a valid marker for physiologic stress in the critically ill patient.
To compare the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) score with resting energy expenditure obtained from indirect calorimetry to determine whether the APACHE II scoring system is an accurate, objective measure of the degree of critical illness and physiologic stress between groups of patients. ⋯ The APACHE II classification may be a valid marker of physiologic stress as demonstrated by its statistically significant (although weak) relationship with indirect calorimetric measures of energy expenditure associated with varying degrees of critical illness.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 1993
Interaction between intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure and externally applied positive end-expiratory pressure during controlled mechanical ventilation.
To assess the interaction between intrinsic and externally applied positive end-expiratory pressure (intrinsic PEEP and administered PEEP) in mechanically ventilated patients. ⋯ The administration of positive end-expiratory pressure equal to the intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure causes the almost total disappearance of the intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure. When the administered positive end-expiratory pressure does not exceed the intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure, the former is applied almost in its entirety to the patient's external circuit. The administration of positive end-expiratory pressure without prior quantification of the intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure results in an overestimation of the beneficial effects of the administered positive end-expiratory pressure on the quasi-static compliance.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 1993
Hypercortisolism in septic shock is not suppressible by dexamethasone infusion.
To explore the feedback regulation of glucocorticoids on corticotropin secretion in patients with septic and nonseptic circulatory shock. ⋯ During circulatory shock, hypercortisolism is associated with high concentrations of lipotropin, and is not suppressible by intravenous dexamethasone infusion.