Minerva anestesiologica
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Patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) experience qualitative and quantitative sleep disruption leading to sleep deprivation and adverse sequelae. Patient-related factors, environmental factors, and health-support techniques contribute to sleep disruption. This quality improvement study examines potential factors contributing to poor sleep in the ICU. ⋯ Patients commonly report poor sleep in the ICU related to environmental factors that are potentially modifiable.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Apr 2012
Echocardiographic evaluation and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide measurement of patients hospitalized for heart failure during weaning from mechanical ventilation.
Weaning patients with heart failure who have required mechanical ventilation remains challenging. We evaluated echocardiographic indexes and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) as markers of acute cardiac dysfunction before and after spontaneous breathing trials (SBT) in such patients to assess their ability to predict subsequent successful extubation. ⋯ Neither NT-proBNP level nor the studied echocardiographic indices before SBT were able to predict SBT outcome in patients presenting with severe heart failure. Failure to increase the cardiac index and increases in both E/Ea ratio and NT-proBNP levels were seen at end-SBT in patients who failed the SBT, and may reflect failure of myocardial reserve to cope with the stress of SBT.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Apr 2012
Impact of the European Paediatric Life Support course on knowledge of resuscitation guidelines among Austrian emergency care providers.
Even though anaesthetists do not resuscitate children on a daily basis, they need to perform paediatric life support regularly due to their different duties. As the knowledge of international guidelines varies widely, highly standardized European Paediatric Life Support (EPLS) courses have been introduced to improve standards of care. This national survey among Austrian anaesthetists and EPLS course participants evaluated the impact of this course at the end of the guideline period 2005-2010. ⋯ The attendance of an EPLS course within the guideline period 2005 significantly increased the theoretical knowledge of paediatric resuscitation guidelines.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Apr 2012
Ultrasound identification of nerve cords in the infraclavicular fossa: a clinical study.
This study aimed to analyze nerve trunk anatomy in the infraclavicular fossa and to correlate these data with the most common anthropometric parameters. ⋯ Sono-anatomic study of the infraclavicular region adds important data that is useful when conducting nerve blocks to improve safety and likelihood of success.