Since their invention during the last century, antibiotics have revolutionised healthcare. However, excessive use, over-prescription and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant infections means antibiotics being likened to a lit window in the night that flashes open for just a moment before it shuts again, according to Dr Robert Masterton, executive medical director and consultant microbiologist at [...]
Tags: Antibiotics, ICU, MDR, MRSA, nosocomial infection, surgical infections, taphylococcus aureus
Background
Barotrauma is a well-recognized complication of mechanical ventilation. Although most frequently encountered in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), it can occur in any patient receiving mechanical ventilation. In addition, barotrauma can occur in patients with a wide range of underlying pulmonary conditions (eg, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, [...]
Tags: barotrauma, Pneumothorax, ventilator, ventilator induced lung injury (VILI)
In the past decade, the single most common cause of the withdrawal or restriction of the use of drugs that have already been marketed has been the prolongation of the QT interval associated with polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, or torsade de pointes (Figure 1), which can be fatal.1 Nine structurally unrelated drugs that were marketed in [...]
Tags: amiodarone, and many antidepressants and antiretroviral agents, Cardiac arrhythmias, clarithromycin, erythromycin, itraconazole, ketoconazole, long QT syndrome, quinidine
Objective: To define the true incidence and nature of acidosis
in pediatric patients postcardiac surgery, using Stewart’s direct
method of measuring strong ion difference. We also wished to
compare the ability of standard indirect methods (base deficit,
lactate, anion gap, and corrected anion gap) to accurately predict
tissue acidosis.
Design: A single-center prospective observational study.
Setting: A pediatric intensive care unit in [...]
Tags: pediatric; intensive care; cardiac surgery; metabolic acidosis; strong ion difference
Non-invasive ventilation (NIV)
· A method of providing ventilatory support without the need for tracheal intubation.
CPAP (Continuous positive airways pressure)
Bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP©)
Advantages of NIV compared to conventional ventilation
Compared with conventional ventilation, NIV is a relatively inexpensive and simple technique which prevents the need for conventional ventilation in some patients and improves survival. Major [...]
Tags: BiPAP, CPAP, Intubation, NIV, Oxygenation, Raspiratory distress
Lung recruitment
Tags: lachman, lung recruitment, PEEP
Providing new standards in ease-of-use, flexibility and continuity, the FloTrac system is the next major advance in hemodynamic management
When used with the Vigileo monitor, FloTrac sensor provides continuous cardiac output (CCO), stroke volume (SV), stroke volume variation (SVV), and systemic vascular resistance (SVR)* through an existing arterial line.
Easy to use, accurate and less invasive
Connects to [...]
Tags: CCO, CO, CVP, SV, SVR, SVV
INTRODUCTION
As intensive care practices and facilities improved and became more widely available, it became a more
common occurrence for severely brain damaged patients to be supported with mechanical ventilation.
There has never been an actual statutory definition of death in the United Kingdom, unlike in the United
States of America, and this was one factor that led to [...]
Tags: brainstem death, dillema, intensive care unit, Neurologist
While there has been a virtual revolution in the treatment of ischemic stroke thanks to the advent of tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA), the options for reducing the potential for damage in hemorrhagic stroke are more limited. Nonetheless, progress is being made here, too — especially in the area of prevention.
In addition, new research provides compelling [...]
Tags: Cerebrovascular disease, hemorrhagic, neurosurgery, Stroke
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, among both men and women. It claims more lives each year than colon, prostate, lymph and breast cancers combined.
Yet most lung cancer deaths could be prevented. That’s because smoking accounts for nearly 90 percent of lung cancer cases. Your risk of lung [...]
Tags: adenocarcinoma, biopsy, chemotherapy, lung cancer