Current opinion in critical care
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Therapeutic hypothermia and aggressive management of postresuscitation disease considerably improved outcome after adult cardiac arrest over the past decade. However, therapeutic hypothermia alters prognostic accuracy. Parameters for outcome prediction, validated by the American Academy of Neurology before the introduction of therapeutic hypothermia, need further update. ⋯ Awakening from postanoxic coma is increasingly observed, despite early absence of motor signs and frank elevation of serum markers of brain injury. A new multimodal approach to prognostication is therefore required, which may particularly improve early prediction of favorable clinical evolution after cardiac arrest.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Jun 2011
ReviewOptimal oxygenation during and after cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Reversal of tissue hypoxia, particularly in the heart and brain, is a fundamental goal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that hyperoxia, especially after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), may worsen outcomes. The purpose of this review is to describe the current evidence supporting the concept of controlled oxygenation during and after cardiac arrest. ⋯ The benefit of supplemental oxygen during cardiopulmonary resuscitation remains uncertain. However, in patients who achieve ROSC after cardiac arrest, available evidence supports adjusting inspired oxygen content to avoid arterial hyperoxemia while providing adequate arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation. This strategy is likely to be most effective when initiated as soon as possible after ROSC and appears to be most important during the first hour. Definitive clinical trials are needed to determine the ultimate impact on outcome.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Jun 2011
ReviewUse of computed tomography scanning to guide lung recruitment and adjust positive-end expiratory pressure.
We discuss the possible role of computed tomography (CT) to guide protective mechanical ventilation in acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS), especially tidal volume (VT) and positive-end expiratory pressure (PEEP) settings and recruitment manoeuvres. ⋯ In ALI/ARDS patients, CT reveals discrepancies between bedside chest radiograph and various clinical and physiological parameters, and it is essential to assess lung morphology and recruitability. Specific algorithms, including or not CT, should be used to better identify ALI/ARDS with potential of recruitment and setting of VT and PEEP.
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Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an attractive method of monitoring patients during mechanical ventilation because it can provide a noninvasive continuous image of pulmonary impedance, which indicates the distribution of ventilation. This article will discuss ongoing research on EIT, with a focus on methodological aspects and limitations and novel approaches in terms of pathophysiology, diagnosis and therapeutic advancements. ⋯ There is growing evidence that supports EIT usage as a bedside measure to individually optimize ventilator settings in critically ill patients in order to prevent ventilator-induced lung injury. A standardization of current approaches to analyse and interpret EIT data is required in order to facilitate the clinical implementation.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Jun 2011
ReviewShould mechanical ventilation be guided by esophageal pressure measurements?
Despite the well recognized role of mechanical ventilation in lung injury, appropriate surrogate markers to guide titration of ventilator settings remain elusive. One would like to strike a balance between protecting aerated units from overdistension while recruiting unstable units, thereby reducing tissue damage associated with their cyclic recruitment and derecruitment. To do so requires some estimate of the topographical distribution of parenchymal stress and strain. ⋯ Notwithstanding its theoretical limitations, esophageal manometry has shown promise in PEEP titration and deserves further evaluation in a larger trial on patients with injured lungs.