American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · May 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialProtective effect of intravenously administered cefuroxime against nosocomial pneumonia in patients with structural coma.
In comatose patients admitted to an ICU, particularly those with head injury, the incidence of early onset pneumonia is exceedingly high. We performed an open, prospective, randomized, and controlled clinical trial aiming at the reduction of the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in head-injured patients and patients with stroke requiring mechanical ventilation. One hundred patients were included because of head injury or coma caused by medical stroke and with Glasgow coma scores < or = 12 and mechanical ventilation > 72 h. ⋯ No differences were found with regard to mortality and morbidity when comparing the study population with the control group. Nevertheless, when comparing patients with pneumonia (from both study and control groups) with those without it, there was a decrease in total hospital stay (35 +/- 13 versus 25 +/- 14 d, p = 0.048) and ICU stay (20 +/- 11 versus 11 +/- 7 d, p = 0.001). The study demonstrated that the administration of two single high doses 1,500 mg each of cefuroxime after the intubation of patients comatose because of head injury or medical stroke is an effective prophylactic strategy to decrease the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia.
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Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. · May 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialInverse ratio ventilation (I/E = 2/1) in acute respiratory distress syndrome: a six-hour controlled study.
To assess the cardiorespiratory effects of a prolonged application of inverse ratio ventilation (IRV), we compared IRV (I/E = 2) with conventional ventilation (CV) (I/E = 0.5), applied for 6 h each in a randomized order, with constant tidal volume (VT) and total positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP(tot)) in eight patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). After 1 h, IRV resulted in a lower peak inspiratory pressure (PIP) (28.2 +/- 1.5 versus 35.6 +/- 1.7 cm H2O, p < 0.05), an unchanged plateau pressure, and a higher mean airway pressure (MAP) (17.8 +/- 0.8 versus 15.6 +/- 0.5 cm H2O, p < 0.05) than CV. No significant difference in Pa(O2) and shunt fraction (QS/QT) was observed (83 +/- 7 mm Hg and 40 +/- 4% in CV versus 92 +/- 14 mm Hg and 35 +/- 3% in IRV, respectively). ⋯ Cardiac index (CI) and oxygen delivery (D(O2)) were lower in IRV (3.7 +/- 0.4 L/min/m2 and 500 +/- 61 ml/min/m2 versus 4.6 +/- 0.5 L/min/m2 and 617 +/- 80 ml/min/m2, respectively, p = 0.05 for both). Regardless of the considered parameter, no significant difference was observed between results after 1, 2, 4, and 6 h in each mode. We conclude that IRV at a ratio that results in a significant intrinsic PEEP does not improve Pa(O2), enhances CO2 elimination, decreases cardiac output (CO), and does not exert any time-dependent effect.