Advanced pressure control modes of ventilation in cardiac surgery: Scanty evidence or unexplored terrain?

Lung atelectasis resulting after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) can result in increased intrapulmonary shunting and consequent hypoxemia. Advanced pressure control modes of ventilation might have at least a theoretical advantage over conventional modes by assuring a minimum target tidal volume delivery at reasonable pressures, thus having potential advantages while ventilating patients with pulmonary atelectasis postcardiac surgery. However, the utility of these modes in the post-CPB setting have not been widely investigated, and their role in cardiac intensive care, therefore, remains quite limited.     

Influence of obesity on sepsis

Sepsis is the leading cause of death in non-coronary intensive care units worldwide, with a very high cost of care. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the increase in morbidity associated with severe obesity in critically ill patients results in increased resource utilization adding further to the cost of care. There is a relative paucity of information regarding the pathophysiology and treatment of obese critically ill patients, especially with sepsis. Obesity as an exclusion criterion in landmark trials is partly responsible for this paucity. While the preventive strategies for obesity will be the most definitive long-term solution, it will take a long time to affect outcomes in our intensive care units. In the meantime, our hospitals, including the intensive care units must continue to treat obese/morbidly obese critically ill patients with sepsis, making it essential to study and understand the pathophysiology and develop treatment strategies for obese with sepsis. Available laboratory data suggests an increased inflammatory response in obese septic individuals. However, the association between obesity and sepsis in the clinical setting is unclear due to controversial results. This article reviews the available clinical and laboratory data that addresses the effects of obesity on sepsis.     

Intensive insulin therapy in the critically ill patients.

BACKGROUND: Hyperglycemia and insulin resistance are common in critically ill patients, even if they have not previously had diabetes. Whether the normalization of blood glucose levels with insulin therapy improves the prognosis for such patients is not known. METHODS: We performed a prospective, randomized, controlled study involving adults admitted to our surgical intensive care unit who were receiving mechanical ventilation. On admission, patients were randomly assigned to receive intensive insulin therapy (maintenance of blood glucose at a level between 80 and 110 mg per deciliter [4.4 and 6.1 mmol per liter]) or conventional treatment (infusion of insulin only if the blood glucose level exceeded 215 mg per deciliter [11.9 mmol per liter] and maintenance of glucose at a level between 180 and 200 mg per deciliter [10.0 and 11.1 mmol per liter]). RESULTS: At 12 months, with a total of 1548 patients enrolled, intensive insulin therapy reduced mortality during intensive care from 8.0 percent with conventional treatment to 4.6 percent (P<0.04, with adjustment for sequential analyses). The benefit of intensive insulin therapy was attributable to its effect on mortality among patients who remained in the intensive care unit for more than five days (20.2 percent with conventional treatment, as compared with 10.6 percent with intensive insulin therapy, P=0.005). The greatest reduction in mortality involved deaths due to multiple-organ failure with a proven septic focus. Intensive insulin therapy also reduced overall in-hospital mortality by 34 percent, bloodstream infections by 46 percent, acute renal failure requiring dialysis or hemofiltration by 41 percent, the median number of red-cell transfusions by 50 percent, and critical-illness polyneuropathy by 44 percent, and patients receiving intensive therapy were less likely to require prolonged mechanical ventilation and intensive care. CONCLUSIONS: Intensive insulin therapy to maintain blood glucose at or below 110 mg per deciliter reduces morbidity and mortality among critically ill patients in the surgical intensive care unit.     

Shrinking pleuritis with lobar atelectasis, a morphologic variant of "round atelectasis"

Round atelectasis (shrinking pleuritis) is typically a localized process characterized by focal pleural scarring and subjacent peripheral atelectasis. We report three patients, studied at autopsy, with an unusual variant of round atelectasis, termed shrinking pleuritis with lobar atelectasis, which is characterized by lobar atelectasis, visceral pleural fibrosis involving multiple lobes, interlobar fibrous cords, pleural effusion, and nonspecific, persistent infiltrates on chest radiogram. The possible causes of shrinking pleuritis with lobar atelectasis in our patients were multiple and included environmental dust exposure, infection, uremia, and recurrent pleural effusions. Our findings support both the folding (pleural effusion) and fibrosing (pleural injury) theories of pathogenesis of round atelectasis and emphasize the spectrum of morphologic variability in this condition.     

Knowledge-based approach to septic shock patient data using a neural network with trapezoidal activation functions

In this contribution we present an application of a knowledge-based neural network technique in the domain of medical research. We consider the crucial problem of intensive care patients developing a septic shock during their stay at the intensive care unit. Septic shock is of prime importance in intensive care medicine due to its high mortality rate. Our analysis of the patient data is embedded in a medical data analysis cycle, including preprocessing, classification, rule generation and interpretation. For classification and rule generation we chose an improved architecture based on a growing trapezoidal basis function network for our metric variables. Our results extend those of a black box classification and give a deeper insight in our patient data. We evaluate our results with classification and rule performance measures. For feature selection we introduce a new importance measure.     

Pediatric follicular bronchiolitis with severe atelectasis: a case report

Follicular bronchiolitis is a rare pulmonary disorder characterized by the presence of multiple hyperplastic lymphoid follicles with a peribronchiolar distribution. An 11-year-old girl with total atelectasis of the right middle lobe (RML) and diffuse multiple small nodules at both lung bases presented to our hospital with frequent upper respiratory infections and pneumonia. The disease progressed during a 3-month period of macrolide therapy, and thoracoscopic biopsy with lobectomy of the atelectatic RML was performed. The histopathologic diagnosis was follicular bronchiolitis. The patient’s pulmonary function improved dramatically after oral steroid treatment. It can be difficult to diagnose follicular bronchiolitis based solely on clinical, laboratory, and radiologic findings; the disorder must be confirmed histopathologically. A patient with longstanding irreversible atelectasis and resulting recurrent respiratory infection may require lobectomy for the diagnosis and treatment of follicular bronchiolitis.     

新生儿重症监护病房真菌血症病原学及临床分析

目的探讨自2004年1月至2008年12月我院新生儿重症监护病房获得性真菌血症病原学及临床特征,为真菌血症防治提供依据。方法回顾分析5年中新生儿重症监护室发生的33例真菌血症的病原学和临床资料。结果33例真菌血症均为医院获得感染的假丝酵母菌,其中白色假丝酵母菌17株、热带假丝酵母菌10株、近平滑假丝酵母菌5株、光滑假丝酵母菌1株。结论假丝酵母菌属是新生儿重症监护病房真菌血症的主要致病菌,以白色假丝酵母菌最常见,但非白色假丝酵母菌也占较大比例;真菌血症与早产、极低体重儿、机械通气、静脉导管、全胃肠外营养等因素有关。5-氟脲嘧啶、伊曲康唑、两性霉素B和氟康唑对假丝酵母菌耐药性较低,氟康唑是治疗假丝酵母菌属的有效药物。     

An outbreak of extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in a neonatal intensive care unit

Klebsiella pneumoniae has long been a prominent cause of nosocomial infections and outbreaks have been observed in the intensive care units and in high risk groups. We present here a brief report on an outbreak of Klebsiella pneumoniae which occurred in a neonatal intensive care unit in our teaching hospital. As neonates are at highest risk for acquisition of Klebsiella pneumoniae producing extended spectrum beta-lactamase, infection control policies and procedures should be strictly followed to prevent such outbreaks.     

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus caprae in a neonatal intensive care unit

Staphylococcus caprae, a hemolytic coagulase-negative staphylococcus that is infrequently associated with humans, was initially detected in specimens from six infants in our neonatal intensive care unit due to phenotypic characteristics common to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. These isolates were subsequently identified as S. caprae by the Automated RiboPrinter microbial characterization system. This prompted an 8-month retrospective investigation in our neonatal intensive care unit. S. caprae was the cause of 6 of 18 episodes of coagulase-negative staphylococcal bacteremia, was the most common coagulase-negative staphylococcus recovered from the nares of 6 of 32 infants surveyed in a methicillin-resistant S. aureus surveillance program, and was isolated from 1 of 37 health care providers' hands. Of 13 neonatal intensive care unit isolates tested, all were methicillin resistant and positive for the mecA gene. All 21 isolates were found to be a single strain by Automated RiboPrinter and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis with ApaI or SmaI digestion; ApaI was more discriminating in analyzing epidemiologically unrelated strains than Automated RiboPrinter or electrophoresis with SmaI. These findings extend the importance of S. caprae, emphasize its similarities to methicillin-resistant S. aureus, and demonstrate its ability to persist in an intensive care unit setting.     

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a three-year epidemiological and microbiological survey of high-risk patients

In order to assess the frequency, and epidemiological and microbiological features, of respiratory and blood stream infection due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in high-risk patients, all S. aureus strains cultured from reliable clinical specimens (respiratory secretions obtained by tracheo-bronchial aspirate or bronchoalveolar lavage, or blood cultures), were prospectively evaluated over a three-year period, in six inpatient wards selected on the ground of an elevated frequency of severe and/or nosocomially-acquired infections, because of the prevalence of immunocompromised patients, organ transplant recipients, or need of intensive care. Repeatedly positive cultures obtained from a single patient within 30 days were considered as one isolate. Of 507 S. aureus strains responsible for pneumonia or sepsis in the selected wards, 317 (62.5%) proved methicillin-resistant, in absence of significant variations throughout the study period, and according to the specimen origin. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains prevailed over sensitive ones in all examined wards (from a 95% rate of the respiratory intensive care unit, to 55.9% of the pneumology department), save the neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit (41.4%). Most of methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates were recovered from lower airways, compared with blood cultures (p<.0001). The majority of the 317 methicillin-resistant strains were found in the general intensive care unit (42.6%), followed by the pneumology department (18%), and the respiratory intensive care unit (16.4%). Among methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains, a broad variation of sensitivity to other antimicrobial agents was observed: from 3.3% of erythromycin, to 76.9% of chloramphenicol, and 79.7% of cotrimoxazole; glycopeptide antibiotics remained effective against all cultured strains. In our three-year survey of more than 500 episodes of documented staphylococcal infection involving high-risk patients, methicillin resistance was a very common feature, observed at a greater frequency than that reported in literature studies focusing on surgical, pneumological, or intensive care settings. A long-term microbiological monitoring of high-risk inpatient wards may allow a continued update of local antimicrobial susceptibility maps, and significantly add to both chemoprophylaxis and empiric treatment strategies of patients which are either immunocompromised or hospitalized for a long period.     

Implementation of post-intensive care outpatient clinic (I-POINT) for critically ill COVID-19 survivors

Although we have enough and cumulative information about acute effects of COVID-19, our knowledge is extremely limited about long-term consequences of COVID-19, in terms of its impacts and burdens on patients, families, and the health system. Considering the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms affecting all of the organ systems in critically ill COVID-19 patients who are admitted to intensive care units, the development of post-intensive care syndrome is inevitable. This situation brings along the development of long-COVID. These patients should be followed regarding cognitive, physical, and psychiatric aspects and necessary specialist referrals should be carried out. In this article, we are presenting the experience and recommendations of our center, as a guide for the establishment process of post-intensive care outpatient clinics for the critically ill patients who required intensive care admission due to COVID-19 and could be discharged.     

Combining diagnosis and treatment using ASBRU

Traditionally, diagnosis and treatment have been seen as two distinct tasks. Consequently, most approaches to computer supported health care focus on one of the two-mostly on diagnosis or rather on the interpretation of measurements which is much better understood and formalised. However, in practice diagnosis and treatment overlap and influence each other in many ways. Combinations range from repeatedly going through the diagnosis-treatment loop over a period of time to permanent monitoring of the patients' health condition as it is done in intensive care units. In this article we describe how to model these combinations using the clinical protocol-representation language ASBRU. It implements treatment steps in a hierarchy of skeletal, time-oriented plans. Diagnosis can either be described in a declarative way in the conditions, under which treatment steps are taken or it can be modelled explicitly as plans of their own right. We demonstrate our approach using examples taken from the American Association of Paediatricians' guideline for the treatment of hyperbilirubinemia in the new-born.     

卵巢过度刺激综合征10例治疗体会

目的总结卵巢过度刺激综合征的治疗.方法回顾分析10例卵巢过度刺激综合征(以后简称OHSS)的临床资料.结果OHSS经过严密监护输白蛋白或血浆,扩容及放腹水等对症治疗后可治愈.结论OHSS在严密监护下,经过相应的对症治疗可治愈.     

A controlled trial in intensive care units of selective decontamination of the digestive tract with nonabsorbable antibiotics. The French Study Group on Selective Decontamination of the Digestive Tract.

BACKGROUND. Selective decontamination of the digestive tract with topical nonabsorbable antibiotics has been reported to prevent nosocomial infections in patients receiving mechanical ventilation, and the procedure is used widely in Europe. However, it is unclear whether selective decontamination improves survival. METHODS. We conducted a randomized, double-blind multicenter study in which 445 patients receiving mechanical ventilation in 15 intensive care units were given either prophylactic nonabsorbable antibiotics (n = 220) or a placebo (n = 225). Topical antibiotics (tobramycin, colistin sulfate, and amphotericin B) or a placebo was administered through a nasogastric tube and applied to the oropharynx throughout the period of ventilation. The main end points were the mortality rate in the intensive care unit and within 60 days of randomization. RESULTS. A total of 142 patients died in the intensive care unit; 75 (34 percent) in the treatment group and 67 (30 percent) in the placebo group (P = 0.37). Mortality within 60 days of randomization was similar in the two groups (P = 0.40), even after adjustment for factors that were either unbalanced or individually predictive of survival in the two groups (P = 0.70). Pneumonia developed in 59 patients (13 percent) in the intensive care unit within 30 days of enrollment in the study (33 in the placebo group and 26 in the treatment group, P = 0.42). Pneumonia acquired in the intensive care unit and due to gram-negative bacilli was less frequent (P = 0.01) in the treatment group than in the placebo group. The total charges for antibiotics were 2.2 times higher in the treatment group. CONCLUSIONS. Selective decontamination of the digestive tract does not improve survival among patients receiving mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit, although it substantially increases the cost of their care.     

我院重症监护室铜绿假单胞菌感染趋势及其耐药性分析

目的铜绿假单胞菌（Pseudomonas aeruginosa,PA）为院内感染的重要代表菌及临床分离率较高的菌株,在我院PA占所有菌株检出率的24.5%、占革兰阴性杆菌检出率的35.4%。通过对我院2006年1月-2009年6月期间4个重症监护室铜绿假单胞菌的感染情况及其耐药性进行分析,并与同期非重症监护室的病区进行比较,分析PA产碳青霉烯酶水解碳青霉烯类抗生素后同时携带多种耐药基因对其他药物敏感性的影响。方法采用Micro Scan全自动细菌鉴定和药敏分析仪,数据的分析采用WHONET软件。结果 4年间我院重症监护室铜绿假单胞菌检出数为559株,依次为：内科ICU272株、外科ICU149株、急诊ICU126株、儿科ICU12株。药敏结果显示：铜绿假单胞菌对大部分抗生素的敏感性呈逐年下降的趋势,尤其是重症监护室感染菌株。PA对碳青霉烯类抗菌素耐药的菌株产生多重甚至广泛耐药的几率较高。结论 4年间我院重症监护室铜绿假单胞菌对抗生素的耐药状况严重,尤其对头孢菌素,氨基糖苷类抗生素耐药率明显增加。对亚胺培南的耐药株同时携带多种耐药机制,产生多重耐药甚至泛耐药。多重耐药株和泛耐药株的检出亦呈逐年上升的趋势。     

Treatment with tigecycline of recurrent urosepsis caused by extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli

A 25-year-old female was admitted to our intensive care unit with septic shock and multiorgan failure caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli originating from the right renal pelvis. A 16-day course of treatment with meropenem reversed the septic condition, but the infection recurred thereafter. The patient recovered fully after therapy was changed to tigecycline.     

Computerized estimates of functional residual capacity in infants

The methods presently available for measuring FRC of newborn infants are impractical and used primarily as research tools. This report describes a new device for estimating FRC which is accurate, reproducible, and practical for use on critically ill infants in the intensive care unit. Measurements are made using either [1] standard multiple breath N₂ washout or [2] a new 4-breath N₂ washout method of estimating FRC. Automating the measurements with a microcomputer reduced the time required for data reduction from 45 min to seconds. Utilizing the 4-breath method reduced measurement times (including time for reequilibration) from 15 min to less than a minute; thus, repeated measurements may be made even in critically ill infants suffering from RDS whose FRC may be relatively unstable. Breathing O₂ for only 4 breaths also reduces possible damaging effects of O₂ such as retinopathy and absorption atelectasis.     

Acinetobacter baumannii colonization in ventilated preterm infants

The role ofAcinetobacter baumannii in infections in ventilated preterm infants was evaluated in 15 colonized infants (11 male, 4 female) in a pediatric intensive care unit. These cases were randomly matched by birth weight and gestational age with ventilated non-colonized controls (8 male, 7 female). Case records were reviewed for signs and symptoms of infection. Colonized infants were ventilated significantly longer (p<0.05) than controls, and had body temperatures of >37°C for a significantly longer period of time (p<0.05). No other parameter of infection differed significantly between the groups. The duration of intensive care treatment did not differ between cases and controls, nor did the weight gain during intensive care treatment. No fatalities occurred in either group.     

Structured approach to treat patients with acute liver failure: A hepatic emergency

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a condition of acute hepatic emergency where rapid deterioration of hepatocyte function leads to hepatic encephalopathy, coagulopathy, cerebral edema (CE), infection and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome resulting in a high mortality rate. Urgent liver transplantation is the standard of care for most of these patients in Western countries. However, in India, access to liver transplantation is severely limited and, hence, the management is largely based on intensive medical care. With earlier recognition of disease, better understanding of pathophysiology and improved intensive care, ALF patients have shown a significant improvement in spontaneous survival. An evidence base for practice for supportive care is still lacking; however, intensive organ support as well as control of infection and CE are likely to be key to the successful outcome in this acute and potentially reversible condition without any sequel. A structured approach to decision making about intensive care is important in each case. Unlike in Western countries where acetamenophen is the most common cause of ALF, the role of a specific agent, such as N-acetylcysteine, is limited in India. Ammonia-lowering therapy is still in an evolving phase. The current review highlights the important medical management issues in patients with ALF in general as well as the management of major complications associated with ALF. We performed a MEDLINE search using combinations of the key words such as acute liver failure, intensive treatment of acute liver failure and fulminant hepatic failure. We reviewed the relevant publications with regard to intensive care of patients with ALF.