Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Sep 1999
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialAntihistamine prophylaxis permits rapid vancomycin infusion.
To determine whether pretreatment with intravenous antihistamines attenuates the symptoms of red-man syndrome associated with rapid vancomycin administration. ⋯ Pretreatment with intravenous H1 and H2 antihistamines permitted rapid vancomycin administration in 89% of treated patients. Although protection was incomplete, rash did not predict a need to stop the rapid infusion of vancomycin in our patients.
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Critical care medicine · Sep 1999
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialDopexamine reduces the incidence of acute inflammation in the gut mucosa after abdominal surgery in high-risk patients.
To evaluate the effect of dopexamine on the incidence of acute inflammation in the stomach/duodenum in patients undergoing abdominal surgery > or =1.5 hrs with a minimum of one high-risk criterion. ⋯ Dopexamine in doses of 0.5 and 2.0 microg/kg/min affords significant histologic protection to the upper gastrointestinal tract mucosa 72 hrs after operation in high-risk surgical patients undergoing abdominal surgery.
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Critical care medicine · Sep 1999
Multicenter StudyInterobserver variability in data collection of the APACHE II score in teaching and community hospitals.
To examine interobserver reliability of the Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score and identify major causes of variability in data collection. ⋯ Reliability of data collection varied widely in different components of the APACHE II probability-of-death model. Significant discrepancies in some components suggested a lack of explicit definitions and timing for consistent data collection between institutions or between data collectors. Nonetheless, variability resulting from data collection appears to be randomly distributed, so that comparisons of group means are valid.