Resp Care
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Case Reports
Successful treatment of acute chest syndrome with high-frequency oscillatory ventilation in pediatric patients.
Severe acute chest syndrome afflicts patients with sickle cell disease and can cause hypoxemia refractory to conventional treatments. Obstructive mucus plugging and the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome may underlie the pathophysiology of refractory hypoxemia in acute chest syndrome. ⋯ We report the first successful HFOV management of pediatric patients suffering from severe acute chest syndrome and hypoxic respiratory failure. These cases suggest that HFOV should be strongly considered for patients with severe acute chest syndrome that is refractory to conventional mechanical ventilation.
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Portable pressure ventilators, or bi-level ventilators, do not typically have an oxygen control, and thus supplemental oxygen is usually administered by adding it into the mask or the circuit. We conducted this study to test the hypothesis that delivered oxygen concentration using this configuration is affected by the choice of leak port, oxygen injection site, and ventilator settings. ⋯ Delivered oxygen concentration during BiPAP is a complex interaction between the leak port type, the site of oxygen injection, the ventilator settings, and the oxygen flow. Because of this, it is important to continuously measure arterial oxygen saturation via pulse oximetry with patients in acute respiratory failure who are receiving noninvasive ventilation from a bi-level ventilator.
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Case Reports
The use of high positive end-expiratory pressure for respiratory failure in abdominal compartment syndrome.
We report a case in which a non-trauma patient suffering hematemesis and undergoing massive volume resuscitation developed abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). The abdominal distension severely compromised his pulmonary functioning: a chest radiograph showed low lung volumes and dense bilateral parenchymal opacities. His blood oxygen saturation reached as low as 32%. ⋯ On the contrary, high-pressure ventilation can be harmful in the setting of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome, so we do not advocate high PEEP for all patients with hypoxemia and ACS, especially considering that many of the conditions associated with ACS can also precipitate acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome. As well, high-pressure ventilation can increase the risk of hypotension by impairing venous return. However, our case suggests that high PEEP may temporize in certain situations in which ACS causes life-threatening hypoxia but surgical decompression is not possible.
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Case Reports
Severe acute respiratory distress syndrome in a child with malaria: favorable response to prone positioning.
We present the case of a 4-year-old boy with malaria who developed acute respiratory distress syndrome with severe hypoxemia refractory to mechanical ventilation and inhaled nitric oxide. Placing the patient in prone position immediately and persistently improved oxygenation: the ratio of P(aO(2)) to fraction of inspired oxygen rose from 47 to 180 mm Hg and the oxygenation index decreased from 40 to 11. The patient survived, with no respiratory sequelae.
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Comparative Study
Publication, citations, and impact factors of leading investigators in critical care medicine.
Critical care medicine research is reported in major medical journals that can be accessed via computerized search engines such as PubMed (National Library of Medicine) or Web of Science (Thomson ISI [Institute for Scientific Information]). The crediting of report citations to specific journals or individuals is a rapidly developing and highly controversial evaluative process. ⋯ From criteria selected to attribute original work to specific authors we identified 20 leading critical care medicine investigators, as measured by number of publications, citations, and impact factors. We also report a country factor based on posters (on mechanical ventilation) presented at the 2001-2003 international conferences of the American Thoracic Society.