Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Nov 2012
Do elderly intensive care unit patients receive less intensive care treatment and have higher mortality?
The number of elderly (≥ 80 years) will increase markedly in Norway over the next 20 years, increasing the demand for health-care services, including intensive care. The aims of this study were to see if intensive care unit (ICU) resource use and survival are different for elderly ICU patients than for younger adult ICU patients. ⋯ Octogenarians had shorter ICU stays, had higher overall mortality, had a shift of dying at the ward rather than in the ICU, and received less and shorter mechanical ventilatory support.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Nov 2012
Acute kidney injury in intensive care units according to RIFLE classification: a population-based study.
Recent studies of the incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) are largely based on estimated baseline serum creatinine values. The aim of this study was to more accurately determine the incidence of AKI using the RIFLE criteria for intensive care unit (ICU) patients of a whole population. ⋯ The incidence of AKI in the ICU was lower than previously published, perhaps due to overestimation of AKI using estimated baseline creatinine or bias from tertiary referrals. AKI patients have high mortality, but the survivors have a low incidence of end-stage renal failure.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Nov 2012
Post-conditioning by xenon reduces ischaemia-reperfusion injury of the spinal cord in rats.
The neuroprotective effects of xenon post-conditioning following spinal cord injury remain unknown. We monitored the effect of xenon post-conditioning on the spinal cord following ischaemia-reperfusion injury and determined its mechanism of action. ⋯ Xenon post-conditioning exerts a neuroprotective effect on the spinal cord following ischaemia-reperfusion injury via its anti-apoptotic role.