Articles: mechanical-ventilation.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2016
Computed tomography confirms a reduction in diaphragm thickness in mechanically ventilated patients.
Patients who require mechanical ventilation (MV) may experience diaphragm atrophy, which may delay the discontinuation of MV. Here, we used computed tomographic (CT) scans to confirm this phenomenon. ⋯ Computed tomography confirmed that diaphragm thickness was reduced in critically ill patients who underwent MV.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · Jun 2016
ReviewVolatile Anesthetics: Is A New Player Emerging in Critical Care Sedation?
Volatile anesthetic agent use in the intensive care unit, aided by technological advances, has become more accessible to critical care physicians. With increasing concern over adverse patient consequences associated with our current sedation practice, there is growing interest to find non-benzodiazepine-based alternative sedatives. ⋯ However, like all sedatives, volatile agents are capable of deeply sedating patients, which can have respiratory depressant effects and reduce patient mobility. This review seeks to critically appraise current volatile use in critical care medicine including current research, technical consideration of their use, contraindications, areas of controversy, and proposed future research topics.
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For the past 4 decades, the prone position has been employed as an occasional rescue option for patients with severe hypoxemia unresponsive to conventional measures applied in the supine orientation. Proning offers a high likelihood of significantly improved arterial oxygenation to well selected patients, but until the results of a convincing randomized trial were published, its potential to reduce mortality risk remained in serious doubt. Proning does not benefit patients of all disease severities and stages but may be life-saving for others. Because it requires advanced nursing skills and escalation of monitoring surveillance to deploy safely, its place as an early stage standard of care depends on the definition of that label.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2016
Clinical impact of pulmonary sampling site in the diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia: A prospective study using bronchoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage.
It is unclear whether ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is actually a bilateral and multifocal process. In addition, the diagnostic role of chest x-ray is under debate. Assuming a low microbiologic concordance between the left and right lungs, the reliability of a single pulmonary sampling becomes questionable. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the choice of the pulmonary sampling area is clinically relevant in the management of VAP. ⋯ In patients with clinically suspected VAP (especially those without purulent secretions or without radiographically documented bilateral infiltrates), quantitative culture of a single BAL sample may provide an incomplete assessment of lung microbiology, without having a relevant impact on the appropriateness of antimicrobial treatment. These findings suggest that single sampling of respiratory secretions, regardless radiographic opacity, seems to be a reliable diagnostic method in the management of VAP.
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In emphysema airway resistance can exceed collateral airflow resistance, causing air to flow preferentially through collateral pathways. In severe emphysema ventilation through openings directly through the chest wall into the parenchyma (spiracles) could bypass airway obstruction and increase alveolar ventilation via transpleural expiration. During lung transplant operations, spiracles occasionally can occur inadvertently. ⋯ During transpleural spiracle ventilation, inspiratory tidal volumes (TV) were unchanged; however, expiration was entirely transpleural in two patients whereas the expired TV to the ventilator circuit was reduced to 25% of the inspired TV in one. At baseline, mean PCO2 was 61 ± 5 mm Hg, which decreased to a mean PCO2 of 49 ± 5 mm Hg (P = .05) within minutes after transpleural spiracle ventilation and further decreased at 1 to 2 h (36 ± 4 mm Hg; P = .002 compared with baseline) on unchanged ventilator settings. This observation of increased alveolar ventilation supports further studies of spiracles as a possible therapy for advanced emphysema.