First-in-human experience of preload regulation with percutaneous transluminal caval flow regulation in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction patients.

Aims: This study aims to investigate the acute haemodynamic effects of percutaneous transluminal flow regulation (PTCR®) with an inferior vena cava regulator balloon in heart failure patients. Preload reduction in heart failure has been achieved with high potency diuretics. However, no study has been conducted in humans to assess the effect of inferior vena cava intermittent occlusion for preload reduction.

Severe hypercapnia and outcome of mechanically ventilated patients with moderate or severe acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Purpose: To analyze the relationship between hypercapnia developing within the first 48 h after the start of mechanical ventilation and outcome in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Patients And Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of three prospective non-interventional cohort studies focusing on ARDS patients from 927 intensive care units (ICUs) in 40 countries. These patients received mechanical ventilation for more than 12 h during 1-month periods in 1998, 2004, and 2010.

Multicenter prospective study on device-associated infection rates and bacterial resistance in intensive care units of Venezuela: International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) findings.

Background: Device-associated healthcare-acquired infections (DA-HAI) pose a threat to patient safety in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: A DA-HAI surveillance study was conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) in two adult medical/surgical ICUs at two hospitals in Caracas, Venezuela, in different periods from March 2008 to April 2015, using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network (CDC/NHSN) definitions and criteria, and INICC methods.

Results: We followed 1041 ICU patients for 4632 bed days.

Impact of sedation and analgesia during noninvasive positive pressure ventilation on outcome: a marginal structural model causal analysis.

Purpose: There are limited data available about the role of sedation and analgesia during noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV). The objective of study was to estimate the effect of analgesic or sedative drugs on the failure of NPPV.

Methods: We studied patients who received at least 2 h of NPPV as first-line therapy in a prospective observational study carried out in 322 intensive care units from 30 countries.

Evolution of mortality over time in patients receiving mechanical ventilation.

Rationale: Baseline characteristics and management have changed over time in patients requiring mechanical ventilation; however, the impact of these changes on patient outcomes is unclear.

Objectives: To estimate whether mortality in mechanically ventilated patients has changed over time.

Methods: Prospective cohort studies conducted in 1998, 2004, and 2010, including patients receiving mechanical ventilation for more than 12 hours in a 1-month period, from 927 units in 40 countries.

Evolution of mechanical ventilation in response to clinical research.

Rationale: Recent literature in mechanical ventilation includes strong evidence from randomized trials. Little information is available regarding the influence of these trials on usual clinical practice.

Objectives: To describe current mechanical ventilation practices and to assess the influence of interval randomized trials when compared with findings from a 1998 cohort.

Risk factors for extubation failure in patients following a successful spontaneous breathing trial.

Background: To assess the factors associated with reintubation in patients who had successfully passed a spontaneous breathing trial.

Methods: We used logistic regression and recursive partitioning analyses of prospectively collected clinical data from adults admitted to ICUs of 37 hospitals in eight countries, who had undergone invasive mechanical ventilation for > 48 h and were deemed ready for extubation.

Results: Extubation failure occurred in 121 of the 900 patients (13.

Incidence, risk factors, and outcome of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the incidence, risk factors, and outcome of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).

Design: Prospective cohort.

Setting: Three hundred sixty-one intensive care units (ICUs) from 20 countries.

Outcome of mechanically ventilated patients who require a tracheostomy.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of, the risk factors associated with, and the outcome of tracheostomy in a heterogeneous population of mechanically ventilated patients.

Design: Prospective, observational cohort study.

Setting: A total of 361 intensive care units from 12 countries.

Noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation for respiratory failure after extubation.

Background: The need for reintubation after extubation and discontinuation of mechanical ventilation is not uncommon and is associated with increased mortality. Noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation has been suggested as a promising therapy for patients with respiratory failure after extubation, but a single-center, randomized trial recently found no benefit. We conducted a multicenter, randomized trial to evaluate the effect of noninvasive positive-pressure ventilation on mortality in this clinical setting.

Incidence, risk factors and outcome of barotrauma in mechanically ventilated patients.

Objective: To determine the incidence, risk factors, and outcome of barotrauma in a cohort of mechanically ventilated patients where limited tidal volumes and airway pressures were used.

Design And Setting: Prospective cohort of 361 intensive care units from 20 countries.

Patients And Participants: A total of 5183 patients mechanically ventilated for more than 12 h.