Rev Pneumol Clin
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In case of suspected nosocomial lung infection in an intensive care patient, a strictly "clinical" strategy based on the physical exam and qualitative culture of tracheal secretions has three potential drawbacks: i) Numerous patients are given unnecessary antibiotic regimens unwarranted on the sole basis of colonization of the upper airways. In addition to the high cost of such regimens, these antibiotics also have important adverse effects favoring the emergence of multiresistant strains, and in addition, considerably complicating the search for the real cause and the treatment of the fever and the new lung images. ii) This strategy exposes the patient to diagnostic errors by omission if all patients with suspected infection are not treated. iii) Finally, even if the diagnosis of pneumonia is exact, the antibiotic prescribed on the basis of necessarily imprecise information can be most inappropriate or non-optimal in many cases. It is particularly difficult or often impossible to taper off the regimen on day 3 when tracheal cultures become available since the prescription would have to cover all the germs present in the upper airways even though only certain strains are undoubtedly causing the infection in the lung parenchyma. ⋯ Thus, on the basis of the culture results, it would be possible to discontinue any unnecessary antibiotic in patients with negative samples and inversely to use the narrowest possible treatment spectrum for those with positive samples, adapting the regimen to the susceptibility pattern or identified strains. The strongest arguments favoring this invasive strategy come from a multicentric French study on 413 patients with clinically suspected nosocomial pneumonia under artificial ventilation. The results demonstrated lower mortality in the fibroscopy group associated with a major reduction in the consumption of antibiotics.
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Nosocomial infections are recognized as a major problem in patients with endotracheal ventilation, but the risk of nosocomial pneumonia is less well known and considered to be lower for patients on noninvasive ventilation. The risk factors for endotrachial ventilation involve the presence of the endoracheal canula and the direct consequences of the reclining position, use of a respirator, sedation, presence of a nosgastric tube, antiulcer treatment, etc. Most of these risk factors are not present in noninvasive ventilation while others, for example the use of a respirator and a ventilation circuit, persist. ⋯ The principal actions involve taking advantage of the noninvasive nature of the ventilation to reduce the risk factors and other invasive procedures indirectly related with the use of artificial ventilation. Patients should be mobilized as rapidly as possible and oral food intake instituted early. Certain measures concerning humidification of the ventilation circuit remain important as well as other nonspecific measures including hand washing, for the prevention of cross contamination.
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Review Comparative Study
[Noninvasive ventilation: current concepts in the treatment of chronic respiratory failure in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease].
Long-term oxygen therapy remains the mainstay treatment for advanced-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that has reached the state of chronic respiratory failure. Noninvasive ventilation should be discussed for some patients with a instability and frequent hospitalizations for decompensation and progressive degradation of blood gases. Although this subpopulation remains to be perfectly defined, it is reasonable to discuss the implementation of noninvasive ventilation at night in association with daytime oxygen therapy for patients who do not respond to well conducted and well-implemented oxygen therapy if the disease instability is marked by an increasing rate of hospitalizations for decompensation. This subpopulation includes COPD patients with a worsening PaCO2 above 50 mmHg.
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We report the case of a 32-year-old welder who developed a flu-like syndrome a few hours after founding zinc. The patient experienced fever, headache, muscle pain and dyspnea that resolved spontaneously with a few hours. ⋯ The chest x-ray evidenced bilateral diffuse infiltrative pulmonary lesions, rarely described in this syndrome. Metal fume fever is a likely diagnosis in exposed patients who develop fever with diffuse lung involvement.