Minerva anestesiologica
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Minerva anestesiologica · Jul 2013
ReviewSleep in the Intensive Care Unit measured by polysomnography.
Sleep deprivation has deleterious effects on most organ systems. Patients in the Intensive care unit (ICU) report sleep deprivation as the second worst experience during their stay only superseded by pain. The aim of the review is to provide the clinician with knowledge of the optimal sleep-friendly care and environment. ⋯ Sedation should be kept at a minimum and interrupted once daily. Care interventions should be clustered and noise reduced and/or masked with earplugs. NAVA, proportional assist+ or assist-control ventilation should be preferred to pressure support ventilation and adjusted to allow smaller tidal volumes, thus avoiding central apnoeas.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Jul 2013
ReviewOutcomes after ARDS: a distinct group in the spectrum of disability after complex and protracted critical illness.
ARDS represents an important public health problem for patients, family caregivers and society. The last decade has seen a burgeoning literature focussed on the outcomes of this patient group and has informed important new knowledge about the devastating and often irreversible morbidity related to nerve, muscle and brain injury More recent studies have reinforced these robust themes of physical and neuropsychological morbidity in other patient groups and have shown that outcomes after ARDS are one segment of a spectrum of disability and may not be widely generalizable across older patients with multiple comorbidities and protracted length of stay in the critical care unit. Our literature has reached theme saturation in terms of morbidity and needs to identify and begin to address the research agenda for the next decade. Several of these themes will be addressed here and include the following: 1) to generate large diverse datasets to understand different outcome trajectories over time to facilitate risk stratification and inform development of rehabilitation programs; 2) to embrace mixed methodology as a new longitudinal study standard to facilitate detailed qualitative observations to augment insights from quantitative data; 3) to educate patients, families, colleagues and decision-makers about outcomes after critical illness to inform policy and decision-making; 4) to embrace family caregivers and provide intervention when needed and ongoing support across transitions of care; 5) prioritize functional outcome measures over those targeted at health-related quality of life for construction of more focussed rehabilitation interventions; 6) embrace translational research programs to elucidate the relationship between functional outcome and molecular mechanism to gain further insight into the pathophysiology of critical illness, muscle and brain injury and potential insights into novel therapeutic strategies.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Jul 2013
Comparative StudyAnesthetic management in pediatric patients with epidermolysis bullosa: a single center experience.
Anesthesia in children with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (EB) presents a significant challenge as many children have a difficult airway and are at risk for additional blistering. In this retrospective study we compared deep sedation/ analgesia and general anesthesia for safety and efficiency. Procedure, type of anesthesia, airway management, complications, time for induction and awakening, length of stay in recovery room, length of procedure were noted and compared, qualitatively and with statistic tests as appropriate. ⋯ In children with dystrophic EB deep sedation/ analgesia can be safely performed and is less time consuming than traditional management.