American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation
-
Am J Phys Med Rehabil · Jul 1997
Case ReportsAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Successful treatment of mucous plugging by mechanical insufflation-exsufflation.
Bronchial mucous plugging is the main precipitating factor of acute respiratory failure for patients with neuromuscular disease. Manually assisted coughing and mechanical insufflation-exsufflation can effectively eliminate airway secretions without resorting to tracheal intubation provided that bulbar muscle function is sufficient to permit assisted peak cough flows of 160 l/min or greater. We now report successful use of mechanical insufflation-exsufflation to prevent acute respiratory failure for a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with no measurable peak cough flow.
-
Am J Phys Med Rehabil · Jul 1997
Incidence of fever in the rehabilitation phase following brain injury.
There appears to be a high incidence of fever after brain injury. The most common cause for fever is infection. The incidence of fever occurring as a result of hypothalamic thermoregulatory dysfunction after brain injury is less clear. ⋯ Twenty-four percent of subjects experienced fevers, with each of the populations having similar occurrence rates. Unexplained fever events were found in the traumatic brain injury (7%) and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (8%) subpopulations only. No unexplained fever event was associated with a temperature greater than 100.8 degrees F.