Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Review
Clinical review: Noninvasive ventilation in the clinical setting--experience from the past 10 years.
This brief review analyses the progress of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) over the last decade. NIV has gained the dignity of first line intervention for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, assuring reduction of the intubation rate, rate of infection and mortality. ⋯ The infection rate reduction effect achieved by NIV application is crucial for immunocompromised patients for whom the endotracheal intubation represents a high risk. Improvements in skills acquired with experience over time progressively allowed successful treatment of more severe patients.
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Current protective lung ventilation strategies commonly involve hypercapnia. This approach has resulted in an increase in the clinical acceptability of elevated carbon dioxide tension, with hypoventilation and hypercapnia 'permitted' in order to avoid the deleterious effects of high lung stretch. ⋯ However, there are no clinical data evaluating the direct effects of hypercapnia per se in acute lung injury. This article reviews the current clinical status of permissive hypercapnia, discusses insights gained to date from basic scientific studies of hypercapnia and acidosis, identifies key unresolved concerns regarding hypercapnia, and considers the potential clinical implications for the management of patients with acute lung injury.
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In patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the lung comprises areas of aeration and areas of alveolar collapse, the latter producing intrapulmonary shunt and hypoxemia. The currently suggested strategy of ventilation with low lung volumes can aggravate lung collapse and potentially produce lung injury through shear stress at the interface between aerated and collapsed lung, and as a result of repetitive opening and closing of alveoli. An 'open lung strategy' focused on alveolar patency has therefore been recommended. ⋯ In animal studies, recruitment maneuvers clearly reverse the derecruitment associated with low tidal volume ventilation, improve gas exchange, and reduce lung injury. Data regarding the use of recruitment maneuvers in patients with ARDS show mixed results, with increased efficacy in those with short duration of ARDS, good compliance of the chest wall, and in extrapulmonary ARDS. In this review we discuss the pathophysiologic basis for the use of recruitment maneuvers and recent evidence, as well as the practical application of the technique.
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Additional biomarkers in sepsis are needed to tackle the challenges of determining prognosis and optimizing selection of high-risk patients for application of therapy. In the present study, conducted in a cohort of medical intensive care unit patients, our aim was to compare the prognostic value of mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) levels with those of other biomarkers and physiological scores. ⋯ Pro-ANP appears to be a valuable tool for individual risk assessment in sepsis patients and for stratification of high-risk patients in future intervention trials. Further studies are needed to validate our results.
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Because they share one pathognomonic sign (major hyperthermia), classic or environmental heatstroke and malignant hyperthermia have often been confronted from the therapeutic point of view. As expected and according to major physiopathological discrepancies between both syndromes, analysis of published data does not support effectiveness of dantrolene in heatstroke despite its significant reduction in mortality in malignant hyperthermia. If cooling methods still represent the cornerstone of the heatstroke therapeutic approach, the magnitude of heat-related deaths and the morbidity associated with the August 2003 French heatwave have highlighted the need for more ambitious methods of treatment.