Der Anaesthesist
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The mortality of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is still above 50% despite continuous progress in intensive care medicine. Recent therapy regimens such as the extra corporeal life support (ECLS), permissive hypercarbia, high-frequency ventilation techniques and inhaled nitric oxide (NO) are being applied. All of the above techniques are aimed at different parts of the problems caused by ARDS. ⋯ Although the pulmonary status of the patient improved, the patient died due to therapy-resistant hemodynamic failure. CONCLUSION. It will take further studies to judge whether the success of this new ventilation strategy is reproducible and if the improvement of the oxygenation is more pronounced when adding inhaled NO to SHFJV than when each technique is applied separately.
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Case Reports
[Lethal, non-menstrual toxic shock syndrome associated with Staphylococcus aureus sepsis].
We report a rare case of non-menstrual toxic shock syndrome (TSS) in the course of Staphylococcus aureus sepsis in a 31-year-old primigravida who developed high fever and severe pulmonary and cardiovascular failure within a few hours at the end of the 29th week of a twin pregnancy. Mechanical ventilation was necessary due to signs of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and catecholamines were needed to maintain a somewhat adequate blood pressure. A forceps delivery was performed immediately. ⋯ The diagnosis is based mainly on clinical signs and the isolation of toxin-producing Staph. aureus strains. Besides antibiotic therapy, treatment is primarily directed to the correction of hypotension and additional organ-system failure. Other therapeutic measures such as the elimination of toxins by plasma separation or the administration of antibodies or gamma-globulins are subjects of investigation with no general recommendations at this time.
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Many articles in the literature document the fact that postoperative pain therapy has not improved for decades despite new insights into pain physiology, the availability of powerful analgesics and the development of new techniques. This project was set up to develop practical, effective, safe, and easy to run acute pain therapy. METHODS. ⋯ The difficulties in realizing such a concept are described. The importance of thorough teaching is underlined in a nurse-based system. However, it is not yet clear whether this pain treatment has resulted in reduced morbidity, reduced mortality and a shortened hospital stay of the patients.
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Gastrointestinal integrity with intact function are of main importance in critically ill patients, and not only as a route of nutritional support. Drugs used for long-term sedation can lead to disordered gastrointestinal motility. In this study we compared the influence of different combinations of analgesics and sedatives on the intestinal function in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients. ⋯ Therefore, we recommend piritramide or ketamine for analgesia. The basic sedating drug is midazolam, in special cases combined with or replaced by propofol. The position of GABA in long-term sedation is not yet clear, but a lack of side effects on the gastrointestinal tract became evident in this stud
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For cardio-pulmonary resuscitation there are standardized treatment concepts, but there have been few prospective investigations examining the efficacy of prehospital advanced trauma life support and its effect on the outcome in patients with severe head injury and multiple trauma treated within the German emergency system. The results of this study underline the importance of intensive prehospital treatment and highlight some problems that should be taken into account in future in the training of emergency physicians. METHODS. ⋯ These results demonstrate the importance of advanced trauma life support and show emphatically that the so-called scoop-and-run strategy should be abandoned when resources are available for extended preclinical emergency treatment. On the other hand, we detected some problem areas in the prehospital treatment of trauma victims, such as positioning, immobilization and drug therapy with analgesics and sedatives. These findings allow us to pinpoint specific points that should be stressed in the training of emergency physicians and paramedics.