Medicina intensiva
-
Static pressure-volume curves of the respiratory system from patients with acute lung injury have been extensively studied as a marker of aeration and recruitment phenomena and as a tool to set mechanical ventilation. The inflection points of these curves allow to identify both the pressures in which recruitment starts and finishes and those in which derecruitment starts. However, setting the ventilatory parameters based on these curves has some problems, derived from the fact that setting PEEP and plateau pressures in these patients must balance between the benefits of recruitment and the risks of overstretching caused by high pressures. It remains to be determined if new data derived from these curves are useful to optimize ventilatory settings or to predict the response of a patient to a change in the ventilatory settings.
-
A systematic revision of medical publications between 2006 and 2008 regarding bacterial infections that affect the critical patients was performed. Four subjects were selected: Community-acquired pneumonia, ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-related bloodstream infection and new antimicrobial treatments. When dealing with community-acquired pneumonia and due to the absence of completely reliable standards, it is necessary to follow the locally adapted guidelines of clinical practice, to identify patients related to the health-care system and admit patients to the ICU in accordance with the criteria. ⋯ The empirical treatment of catheter-related bacteremia must be directed towards the most probable pathogens according to the puncture site. The most recently sold antibiotics are basically directed towards multidrug gram positive resistant bacteria. However, for the treatment of gram negative resistant bacilli, the use of the new antimicrobials must be combined with a new evaluation of the antibiotics that have been used for years and the possibility of choosing different administration forms.
-
Brain death has been recognized by the scientific community as the person's death, and accepted in the legislation of different countries. Brain death is defined as the irreversible ending of the functions of all the intracranial neurological structure in both the brain and brain stem. This clinical situation appears when intracranial pressure exceeds the patient's systolic blood pressure, leading to brain circulatory arrest. ⋯ More than 92% of the transplants performed in Spain are performed with brain death donor organs. Brain death confirmation is a high responsibility act, with medical, ethical and legal significance since it requires removal of all artificial support, or organs extraction for transplant. Extensive knowledge on its diagnostic and correct decision making avoid unnecessary use of resources and improves management of organs for transplant.
-
Review Comparative Study
[Intermittent versus continuous renal replacement techniques: pro intermittent].
After an introduction that summarizes the new definitions and risk classification of acute kidney injury, along with the consequences on its epidemiology, available evidence in the literature is reviewed in order to compare intermittent and continuous renal replacement therapy in terms of survival, renal function recovery, hemodynamic stability, transferences between the different techniques and major complications.