American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Feb 1995
Comparative StudyEffects of intrapleural heparin or urokinase on the extent of tetracycline-induced pleural disease.
Extravascular fibrin deposition is common at sites of pleural injury and has been related to loculation of pleural fluids. Although thrombolytic therapy has been used to treat pleural loculations, it has not been compared with pleural administration of anticoagulant therapy. We therefore tested interventional strategies designed to compare the relative effects of in vivo anticoagulation or supplemented fibrinolysis on pleural injury, and to characterize the local tissue responses to these modalities. ⋯ Visceral pleural thickness did not differ between groups (p = NS). We conclude that intrapleural heparin or uPA are equally effective in decreasing intrapleural adhesions in tetracycline-induced pleural injury. The data indicate that early anticoagulation or fibrinolytic intervention can attenuate subsequent pleural symphysis in this model.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Feb 1995
Decisions to limit or continue life-sustaining treatment by critical care physicians in the United States: conflicts between physicians' practices and patients' wishes.
We surveyed a national sample of 879 physicians practicing in adult intensive care units in the United States, in order to determine their practices with regard to limiting life-sustaining medical treatment, and particularly their decisions to continue or forgo life support without the consent or against the wishes of patients or surrogates. Virtually all of the respondents (96%) have withheld and withdrawn life-sustaining medical treatment on the expectation of a patient's death, and most do so frequently in the course of a year. ⋯ We conclude that physicians do not reflexively accept requests by patients or surrogates to limit or continue life-sustaining treatment, but place these requests alongside a collection of other factors, including assessments of prognosis and perceptions of other ethical, legal, and policy guidelines. While debate continues about the ethical and legal foundations of medical futility, our results suggest that most critical care physicians are incorporating some concept of medical futility into decision making at the bedside.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Feb 1995
Clinical risks for development of the acute respiratory distress syndrome.
To further understanding of the epidemiology of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), we prospectively identified 695 patients admitted to our intensive care units from 1983 through 1985 meeting criteria for seven clinical risks, and followed them for development of ARDS and eventual outcome. ARDS occurred in 179 of the 695 patients (26%). The highest incidence of ARDS occurred in patients with sepsis syndrome (75 of 176; 43%) and those with multiple emergency transfusions (> or = 15 units in 24 h) (46 of 115; 40%). ⋯ Mortality was threefold higher when ARDS was present (62%) than among patients with clinical risks who did not develop ARDS (19%; p < 0.05). The difference in mortality if ARDS developed was particularly striking in patients with trauma (56% versus 13%), but less in those with sepsis (69% versus 49%). The mortality data should be interpreted with caution, since the fatality rate in ARDS patients appears to have decreased in our institution from the time that these data were collected.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)