Abstract
The application of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in ICUs has spread widely during the years. It is used in the treatment of different forms of acute respiratory failure and COPD exacerbations. Although NIV is thought to be more comfortable for patients than invasive mechanical ventilation, its failure rates in the ICUs range between 10 and 40%. Except for the interface-related problems, there are some specific considerations for the patient-ventilator interaction and the applied mechanical forces. During NIV there is a predisposition for the stomach to be inflated with gas, which could cause severe respiratory complications, especially in COPD patients, and thus prolong the mechanical ventilation and the weaning process. This remains one of the major causes for NIV failure. Although a lot of face masks with different interfaces are available on the market, just a few have additional ports for a NGT. They are characterized by higher price and a complex setup. In order to perform NIV in patients, requiring NGT placement, without additional air leaks and to be able to ensure their enteral nutrition and/or stomach drainage, we installed a port for a NGT on a standard face mask.
Highlights
To assess cerebral hemodynamics in an experimental sepsis model
Healthy bowel function is an important factor when judging the advisability of early enteral nutrition in critically ill patients
Sepsis is defined as the presence of infection with systemic signs of infection, and severe sepsis as sepsis plus sepsis-induced organ dysfunction or tissue hypoperfusion [1]
Summary
We evaluated platelet activation markers as potential predictive markers of sepsis and of mortality among four commonly encountered populations of patients admitted to ICUs. Methods Ninety-nine non-infected ICU patients were prospectively screened at day 1 (T1) and day 3 (T2) of admission after elective cardiac surgery, trauma, acute neurologic dysfunction or prolonged ventilation (>48 hours). The present study was performed with the aim of assessing whether nursing and physician staff were able to identify patients in need of critical care using only clinical judgment and to compare this with the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) Methods This was a prospective cohort study of all adult patients with a first-time admission to a medical admission unit at a 450-bed regional teaching hospital over a 3-month period in 2010.
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