Articles: postoperative-complications.
-
This study investigated the relationship of incidence, degree, and duration of PCD to age of the patient, time on cardiopulmonary bypass, mean arterial pressure on bypass, ICU time, and body temperature postoperatively. The study sample consisted of 50 open-heart surgery patients. The delirium assessment was made each evening for 7 days after operation. ⋯ Duration of delirium was related to age, ICU time, and temperature on the third postoperative day. Thus, the findings supported the multiple factor theory for etiology of PCD. Certain factors interacted to produce PCD, while different factors interacted to prolong and intensify the delirium produced.
-
This review examines the principles and practice of antibiotic prophylaxis in surgery. Such prophylaxis is required to decrease the frequency of postoperative infection in most patients with clean-contaminated and contaminated wounds, to prevent infrequent but devastating infection of prostheses in cardiovascular and orthopedic surgery and to prevent endocarditis in noncardiac surgery in patients who have valvular heart disease. Prophylaxis should begin before operation; it is usually unnecessary afterwards. ⋯ The latter is more certain, but oral prophylaxis in bowel surgery may offer additional protection by reducing colonic flora, and topical wound and peritoneal antibiotics may be augment protective antibiotic levels at those sites. Antibiotics, such as the cephalosporin cefazolin (but not cephalothin), which penetrate blood and tissues rapidly and for prolonged periods, afford excellent prophylaxis at most sites. But for prophylaxis in colonic surgery, antibiotics directed against Bacteroides fragilis may be superior, and to prevent endocarditis in noncardiac surgery, vancomycin or a combination of penicillin and an aminoglycoside is best.
-
Brain research bulletin · Oct 1981
Case ReportsThermoregulatory disorders after removal of a craniopharyngioma from the third cerebral ventricle.
Aspiration and dissection of a cystic tumor from the third ventricle of a 3-year-old child resulted in several hypothalamic symptoms. One of the most persistent and troubling symptoms was marked hyperthermia which could not be traced to an infectious origin. ⋯ The unusual thermoregulatory status of this patient is similar to that seen in laboratory animals with hypothalamic lesions and to that observed with certain naturally occurring hypothalamic lesions in man. This dysthermia has been successfully treated with chlorpromazine.