Purpose: Various complications are associated with percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) procedures in children. The push technique is being increasingly used, but its complications are insufficiently characterized. We aimed to assess all complications related to PEG procedures and compare the safety of the pull and push techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic made substantial changes in medical care necessary. The aims of this study were to find out what influence the pandemic had on the perioperative course in patients with cholecystectomy (CHE) and to highlight possible residual consequences.
Method: From 1 July 2018 to 31 December 2021 a total of 735 patients with CHE were analyzed.
Background: Persistent symptoms after acute coronavirus-disease-2019 (COVID-19) are common, and there is no significant correlation with the severity of the acute disease. In long-COVID (persistent symptoms >4 weeks after acute COVID-19), respiratory symptoms are frequent, but lung function testing shows only mild changes that do not explain the symptoms. Although COVID-19 may lead to an impairment of the peripheral nervous system and skeletal muscles, respiratory muscle function has not been examined in this setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In 2016 the German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI) and the Association of German Anesthetists (BDA) published 10 quality indicators (QI) to compare and improve the quality of anesthesia care in Germany. So far, there is no evidence for the feasibility of implementation of these QI in hospitals.
Objective: This study tested the hypothesis that the implementation of the 10 QI is feasible in German hospitals.
Background: In 2016 the German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI) and the Association of German Anesthetists (BDA) published 10 quality indicators (QI) to compare and improve the quality of anesthesia care in Germany. So far, there is no evidence for the feasibility of implementation of these QI in hospitals.
Objective: This study tested the hypothesis that the implementation of the 10 QI is feasible in German hospitals.
Background: Incidence and long-term outcomes of choledochal malformations (CMs) in children remain unclear.
Methods: Clinical characteristics, operative details, complications, and follow-up data were collected from eight pediatric surgical centers in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, which also answered a questionnaire addressing management practices.
Results: During 2000-2017, 126 pediatric CMs were diagnosed, corresponding an incidence of 1:37,400.
Background: Surgery for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) is often complicated by intestinal failure (IF) and intestinal failure associated cholestasis (IFAC).
Objective: Assessment of incidence, predictors, and mortality associated with IFAC in surgically treated NEC and SIP.
Methods: A retrospective observational study based on hospital records during 1986-2014 in the two largest Finnish neonatal intensive care units was performed.
Background: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) are the most common abdominal surgical conditions in preemies. Associated mortality remains high and long periods of parenteral nutrition (PN) may be required. We assessed the developments in the outcomes of surgically treated NEC and SIP in the two largest Finnish neonatal intensive care units (NICU).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepartments of Critical Care Medicine are characterized by high medical assistance costs and great complexity. Published recommendations on determining the needs of medical staff in the DCCM are based on low levels of evidence and attribute excessive significance to the structural/welfare approach (physician-to-beds ratio), thus generating incomplete and minimalistic information. The Spanish Society of Intensive Care Medicine and Coronary Units established a Technical Committee of experts, the purpose of which was to draft recommendations regarding requirements for medical professionals in the ICU.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntensive care medicine remains one of the most cost-driving areas within hospitals with high personnel costs. Under the scope of limited budgets and reimbursement, realistic needs are essential to justify personnel staffing. Unfortunately, all existing staffing models are top-down calculations with a high variability in results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnesthesiologists perform a broad spectrum of tasks. However, in many countries, there is no legal basis for personnel staffing of physicians in anesthesia. Also, the German diagnosis related groups system for refunding does not deliver such a basis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Premature ossification of coronal and metopic sutures is treated by fronto-orbital remodeling. Such operations require stable fixation of the reshaped cranial bones. Currently, biodegradable plating systems are used to provide sufficient stability over the time that takes for the osteotomies to ossify.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: The aim of this study was to analyze outcomes of severe short bowel syndrome (SBS) treated with autologous intestinal reconstruction (AIR) surgery to facilitate independence of parenteral nutrition (PN).
Methods: PN dependence, growth, nutritional status, liver function, and survival were comparatively assessed in SBS children treated with (n=10) or without (n=18) AIR surgery.
Results: Median follow-up was 9.
Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in cases of orthotopic liver transplantation is gaining acceptance for intraoperative hemodynamic monitoring. The timepoint of TEE probe insertion varies and is based on the fear of bleeding complications in the setting of portal hypertension with esophageal varices. In this case, early insertion of the TEE probe and examination resulted in the early detection of a large intracardiac thrombus, and thus the cancellation of the planned procedure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Numerous cases of swine-origin 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus (H1N1)-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) bridged by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy have been reported; however, complication rates are high. We present our experience with H1N1-associated ARDS and successful bridging of lung function using superimposed high-frequency jet ventilation (SHFJV) in combination with continuous positive airway pressure/assisted spontaneous breathing (CPAP/ASB).
Methods: We admitted five patients with H1N1 infection and ARDS to our intensive care unit.
Resection of a large vascular sacrococcygeal teratoma (SCT) in a newborn has the potential to be a fatal procedure caused by hemolysis, rupture, or bleeding of the tumor. Usually, most blood supply of an SCT is derived from the middle sacral artery. As soon as these arteries have been ligated, further blood loss is minimal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: appendectomy wounds are still commonly closed with non-absorbable sutures. Stitch removal has financial costs and causes anxiety in children. Our aim was to compare interrupted non-absorbable (NA) and continuous intradermal absorbable (A) sutures in appendectomy wounds to evaluate whether absorbable suturing increases the risk of complications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Acute lung injury (ALI) is an inflammatory disorder of pulmonary or extrapulmonary origin. We have previously demonstrated that netrin-1 dampens murine ALI, and in an attempt to advance this finding into future clinical practice we evaluated whether netrin-1 would reduce alveolar inflammation during porcine ALI.
Methods: This was a controlled in vivo experimental study in pigs.
Background: Several studies have shown that video laryngoscopy enhances the laryngeal view in patients with apparently normal and anticipated difficult airways. The utility of the novel, portable, battery-powered C-MAC video laryngoscope is unproven, but its design makes it potentially useful for emergency situations. We hypothesized that, in patients with a simulated difficult airway created by means of a rigid cervical immobilization collar, the rate of glottic views considered "failed" under direct laryngoscopy could be significantly reduced with the C-MAC video laryngoscope.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFibromyalgia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a severely disabling disorder of connective tissue characterized by congenital malformation of the toes, fingers and vertebrae associated with progressive ossification of striated muscles. Anesthetic management of these patients involves preferably general anesthesia as local or regional anesthesia should be avoided due to possible heterotopic ossification. Airway management is determined by the age of the patient and the progression of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report an unusual case of nasogastric tube, during insertion, perforating the upper and lower segments of atretic esophagus (type C) and ending up in the stomach. Symptoms and imaging of the newborn are presented and the causative factors of the incident discussed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The fibrin-derived peptide Bbeta15-42 (also called FX06) has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size following ischemia/reperfusion. Hemorrhagic shock (HS) followed by volume resuscitation represents a similar scenario, whereby a whole organism is vulnerable to reperfusion injury.
Design: We subjected male farm-bred landrace pigs ( approximately 30 kg) to HS by withdrawing blood to a mean arterial pressure of 40 mm Hg for 60 minutes.
Objective: Haemorrhagic shock causes ischaemia and subsequent fluid resuscitation causes reperfusion injury, jointly resulting in high morbidity and mortality. We tested whether the anti-inflammatory fibrin-derived peptide, Bbeta(15-42), also called FX06, is tissue protective in a model of haemorrhagic shock.
Methods: In a pig model, we standardised the severity of haemorrhagic shock by achieving a cumulative oxygen deficit of approximately 100ml/kg body weight by withdrawing blood over a period of 1h.
Minerva Anestesiol
October 2008
Background: Over the last 15 years, there has been growing interest in the noble gas xenon as a new inhalational anesthetic. This is due to its favorable pharmacological properties such as short onset and offset, as well as its hemodynamic stability. However, most volatile anesthetics appear to play an important role in the multi-factorial etiology of perioperative liver injury by decreasing liver blood flow with a subsequent reduction of hepatic oxygen supply.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS) is a rare disease. However, there is a higher rate of CAIS in girls with inguinal hernia. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of CAIS in girls with inguinal hernia and to find a proper screening test for CAIS in these girls.
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