Articles: ventilators.
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Medical equipment can become scarce in disaster scenarios. Prior work has reported that four sheep could be ventilated together on a single ventilator. Others found that this maneuver is possible when needed, but no one has yet investigated whether cross-contamination occurs in co-ventilated individuals. ⋯ Cross-contamination does not occur within 24 h using the described ventilator circuit configuration.
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Critical care medicine · Mar 2024
Multicenter StudyVentilator Weaning and Terminal Extubation: Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Therapy in Children. Secondary Analysis of the Death One Hour After Terminal Extubation Study.
Terminal extubation (TE) and terminal weaning (TW) during withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies (WLSTs) have been described and defined in adults. The recent Death One Hour After Terminal Extubation study aimed to validate a model developed to predict whether a child would die within 1 hour after discontinuation of mechanical ventilation for WLST. Although TW has not been described in children, pre-extubation weaning has been known to occur before WLST, though to what extent is unknown. In this preplanned secondary analysis, we aim to describe/define TE and pre-extubation weaning (PW) in children and compare characteristics of patients who had ventilatory support decreased before WLST with those who did not. ⋯ Decreasing ventilatory support before WLST with extubation in children does occur. This practice was not associated with significant differences in palliative analgosedation doses or time to death after extubation.