Revista Brasileira de terapia intensiva
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Rev Bras Ter Intensiva · Jun 2008
Characteristics and outcomes of patients treated with drotrecogin alpha and other interventions of the "Surviving Sepsis" campaign in clinical practice.
To face the high mortality of sepsis, interventions grouped as "Surviving Sepsis Campaign" have been suggested. The aim of the study was to describe the application of glycemic control, corticoid use in septic shock, inotropics and drotrecogin-alpha in sepsis. ⋯ Discrepancy between the recommendations of Surviving Sepsis Campaign and clinical practice was observed. Death rate was 57%, similar to that found in the literature for septic shock irrespective of the use of drotrecogin-alpha.
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First introduced in 1922, the intraosseous access technique was extensively used in the 1940's and revised in the 1980's. Since this technique is recommended in actual cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines, the authors present an historical and clinical review of intraosseous access to the venous system. ⋯ The intraosseous access is used mainly to gain rapid access to the intravenous system when there is delay in obtaining the latter one. The technique is simple to learn. The complications rate is less than 1%. Most emergency drugs can be administered in the same doses used by intravenous routes. Bone access can be used in children and adults of any age in several sites. This access can be used satisfactorily to draw blood for cross-matching, blood gases and blood chemistries and emergency infusion of blood and its derivatives, saline solutions for volume replacement in shock, cardiac arrest and emergencies when an intravenous access cannot be made readily available.
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Until the end of the previous century it remained controversial to admit cancer patients to the ICU for advanced-life-supporting therapy. However, over the past few years several centres over the world have shown that it is possible to achieve a meaningful survival in these patients. The aim of this review is to focus on the improvement in outcome that has been achieved over the past two decades in critically ill cancer patients. ⋯ In this review, we first focus on the grim prognosis in the past, subsequently we discuss the improvements in outcome over the past few years across subgroups of cancer patients with increasing degree of severity of illness, and finally, we focus on the value of non-invasive ventilation since it is considered the initial ventilatory strategy in these patients.
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Rev Bras Ter Intensiva · Mar 2008
[Best positive end expiratory pressure settlement in acute respiratory discomfort syndrome and prone position].
In acute respiratory discomfort syndrome (ARDS) patients, prone position improves oxygenation in more than 70% of the cases. It is well known that prone position promotes a lot of pulmonary changes, including pulmonary mechanics, so we hypothesized that there is the necessity to optimize the ventilatory parameters after the patient is placed in prone position, especially the positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) values. The objective of this study valued the influence of the prone position at the calculation of the ideal PEEP, given a title by the best pulmonary complaisance and he compared the pulmonary alterations of mechanics, of oxygenation and of ventilation in the positions supine and prone. ⋯ There were no differences in best PEEP values between prone and supine position. Therefore, there is no need to recalculate the PEEP value after each position change.
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Rev Bras Ter Intensiva · Mar 2008
[Post cardiac surgery In children: extubation failure predictor's].
It is important to know the risk factors for extubation failure (EF) in children submitted to cardiac surgery in order to avoid inherent events due to reintubation (airways injury, usage of medications, cardiovascular changes) and because of prolonged ventilatory support (pneumonias, reduction of the ventilatory muscles strength). The objective of this study is to evaluate mechanical ventilation (MV) parameters, ventilatory mechanics [rapid shallow breathing index (RSBI), ventilatory muscles force [the maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP), the maximum expiratory pressure (MEP) and the load/force balance (LFB)] and blood gases before and after extubation in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery. ⋯ EF in children submitted to cardiac surgery is related to OI > 2, LFB > 4, DMV > 3 days; V E < 1.7 mL/kg/min, PaO2 < 64 mmHg and MIP < - 53 cmH2O. The kind of cardiac defect, MAP, RSBI and arterial blood gas were not related to EF.