Articles: mechanical-ventilation.
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Respiratory failure related to COVID-19 may evolve into acute respiratory distress syndrome, which may require invasive treatment. Through the analysis of a concrete clinical case, we want to clarify how to manage patients suffering from serious acute pathologies, which require timely intervention, even invasive, but refuse medical treatment. The Italian law 219/2017 states strongly the freedom of the patient to choose, independently whether to start or stop at any time any type of medical treatment through their informed consent. ⋯ The law also provides that if the patient refuses therapies or interventions, putting his life at risk, the doctors need to engage in further communication with the support of other professionals, informing the patient of the consequences, promoting every support action, and involving family members. Judgment on the level of impaired capacity, which makes a patient incompetent to make therapeutic decisions, should ideally reflect the balance between respecting patient autonomy and protecting the patient from the consequences of a wrong decision. For the physicians, it is a matter of balancing the need to save the life of the person, or at least to avoid the establishment of permanent damage, with the subject itself expressly stated, including an explicit refusal to carry out maneuvers or therapies or interventions when it is in danger of life, even if such treatments could save it.
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Broad-scale adoption of spontaneous awakening trials (SATs) and spontaneous breathing trials (SBTs) into everyday practice has been slow, and uncertainty exists regarding what factors facilitate or impede their routine delivery. ⋯ There are a number of modifiable factors associated with SAT/SBT performance that are amenable to the development and testing of implementation interventions.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2022
Multicenter StudyManagement and outcomes of pregnant women admitted to intensive care unit for severe pneumonia related to SARS-CoV-2 infection: the multicenter and international COVIDPREG study.
Management and outcomes of pregnant women with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) remain to be investigated. ⋯ In ICU, corticosteroids, tocilizumab and prone positioning were used in few pregnant women with COVID-19. Over a third of patients were intubated and delivery improved the driving pressure.
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High flow nasal cannula (HFNC) use reduces work of breathing and improves oxygenation for patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure. Limited prior work has explored protocolized use of HFNC for trauma patients outside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The purpose of this study is to describe and evaluate use of HFNC for patients with rib fractures when therapy was standard of care on all floors of the hospital. ⋯ Findings suggest that HFNC therapy can be safely initiated and managed on all hospital floors for patients with multiple rib fractures. Making the therapy available outside the ICU may reduce healthcare resource use without adversely affecting patient outcomes.