Articles: mechanical-ventilation.
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Editorial Comment
Ultrasound to assess diaphragmatic function in the critically ill-a critical perspective.
Ultrasound of the diaphragm in critically ill patients has become a diagnostic technique of emerging interest among clinicians and scientists. The advantages include that it is widely available, non-invasive and examination can be performed after relatively short training and at low costs. It is used to estimate muscle mass by measurement of muscle thickness and diagnose weakness by the assessment of diaphragm movement during unassisted breathing. ⋯ The enthusiasm that surrounds this topic is shared by many clinicians and we agree that ultrasound is a valuable tool to screen for diaphragm dysfunction in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. However, in our opinion much more studies are required to validate ultrasound as a tool to quantify breathing effort. More sophisticated ultrasound techniques, such as speckle tracking imaging are promising techniques to evaluate respiratory muscle function in patients, including the critically ill.
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Intensive Care Med Exp · Dec 2016
EditorialLung stress, strain, and energy load: engineering concepts to understand the mechanism of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI).
It was recently shown that acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) mortality has not been reduced in over 15 years and remains ~40 %, even with protective low tidal volume (LVt) ventilation. Thus, there is a critical need to develop novel ventilation strategies that will protect the lung and reduce ARDS mortality. Protti et al. have begun to analyze the impact of mechanical ventilation on lung tissue using engineering methods in normal pigs ventilated for 54 h. ⋯ If the lung is fully inflated, a large Vt is not necessarily injurious. In conclusion, using engineering concepts to analyze the impact of the mechanical breath on the lung is a novel new approach to investigate VILI mechanisms and to help design the optimally protective breath. Data generated using these methods have challenged some of the current dogma surrounding the mechanisms of VILI and of the components in the mechanical breath necessary for lung protection.
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Respiratory failure is among the most common primary causes of or complications of critical illness, and although mechanical ventilation can be lifesaving, it also engenders substantial risk of morbidity and mortality to patients. Three decades of research suggests that the duration of invasive mechanical ventilation can be reduced substantially, reducing morbidity and mortality. Mean duration of ventilation reported in recent international studies suggests a quality chasm in management of this common critical illness. ⋯ To the extent that daily wake-up-and-breathe reduces morbidity, mortality, and length of stay, failure to deploy this strategy is, by definition, malpractice (ie, poor practice). Practical measures are offered to close this quality chasm.
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Editorial Randomized Controlled Trial
Use of a Shared Canister Protocol for the Delivery of Metered-Dose Inhalers in Mechanically Ventilated Subjects.
Mechanically ventilated patients often need bronchodilators administered via a metered-dose inhaler (MDI). Unfortunately, there are no data examining the impact of shared canister delivery of MDI therapy in mechanically ventilated patients. ⋯ Our study found that shared canister MDI therapy compared with single-patient MDI use was associated with a significant cost savings and similar rates of VAP, hospital mortality, and length of stay but a greater prevalence of ventilator-associated events. This finding suggests that shared canister delivery of MDIs may be a cost-effective practice in mechanically ventilated patients. Based on our findings, further studies examining the overall safety of shared canister use in mechanically ventilated patients seem warranted before recommending their routine use. (ClinicalTrials.gov registration NCT01935388.).
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Protective lung ventilation requires calculating predicted body weight (BW) from height. Thus, inaccuracy of height data in the electronic health record (EHR) is a risk factor for ventilator-induced lung injury. Charted height data often have uncertain accuracy. Study purposes were (1) to evaluate the difference between patient height charted in the EHR and predicted height (PH) from ulnar length and (2) to determine how the height data source affects predicted BW and the resulting values for protective tidal volume (V(T)). ⋯ For overall populations, mean height calculated from values charted in the EHR is similar to that estimated from ulnar length. However, for individuals, differences in height between the 2 sources can be large, leading to large differences in predicted BW and resultant V(T) set in terms of mL/kg.