Inhaled nitric oxide before induction of anesthesia in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the action of inhaled nitric oxide in the patients with pulmonary hypertension administered with a face mask before anesthesia induction.

Methods: Ten adult patients scheduled for heart surgery with sternotomy were included in this prospective, interventional, single centre study. The inclusion criteria were patients scheduled for heart surgery with sternotomy with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), aged >18 years which presents a pulmonary hypertension (PH) (class 2 or 3 according to the Dana Point classification) with systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (PAPS) >40 mmHg diagnosed by preoperative right cardiac catheterization or by transthoracic echocardiography.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome associated with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Patients with COVID-19 who develop severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) can have symptoms that rapidly evolve to profound hypoxaemia and death. The efficacy of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for patients with severe ARDS in the context of COVID-19 is unclear. We aimed to establish the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with respiratory failure and COVID-19 treated with ECMO.

A multicentre observational study on management of general anaesthesia in elderly patients at high-risk of postoperative adverse outcomes.

Introduction: In elderly patients, goal-directed haemodynamic therapy (GDHT), depth of anaesthesia monitoring and lung-protective ventilation have been shown to improve postoperative outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate current practices concerning strategies of anaesthesia optimisation in patients aged≥75 years.

Patients And Methods: A multicentre observational study was performed from February to May 2015 in 23 French academic centres.

Hydrocortisone and fludrocortisone for prevention of hospital-acquired pneumonia in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (Corti-TC): a double-blind, multicentre phase 3, randomised placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Hospital-acquired pneumonia is common after traumatic brain injury, and might be partly a result of traumatic brain injury-induced adrenal insufficiency. We tested the efficacy of low-dose hydrocortisone with fludrocortisone for the prevention of hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Methods: We did this double-blind, phase 3, placebo-controlled trial in 19 intensive care units in France.

Rapid onset of specific diaphragm weakness in a healthy murine model of ventilator-induced diaphragmatic dysfunction.

Background: Controlled mechanical ventilation is associated with ventilator-induced diaphragmatic dysfunction, which impedes weaning from mechanical ventilation. To design future clinical trials in humans, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms using knockout models, which exist only in the mouse, is needed. The aims of this study were to ascertain the feasibility of developing a murine model of ventilator-induced diaphragmatic dysfunction and to determine whether atrophy, sarcolemmal injury, and the main proteolysis systems are activated under these conditions.

Fluid management and risk factors for renal dysfunction in patients with severe sepsis and/or septic shock.

Introduction: The causative role of new hydroxyethyl starch (HES 130/0.4) in renal dysfunction frequency (a > 50% increase in serum creatinine or need for renal replacement therapy (RRT)) remains debated. Using the database of a multicenter study focusing on patients with severe sepsis and septic shock, the present study aimed at identifying factors associated with the occurrence of renal dysfunction.

Placenta accreta: management with uterine artery embolization in 17 cases.

Purpose: To report on the management of placenta accreta with uterine artery embolization (UAE) and to analyze the outcomes.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study was performed over a 128-month period of all women with placenta accreta who underwent UAE in a single center. Seventeen patients were included, and they were further divided into two groups: a preventive group (diagnosis was made in the prenatal period, n = 6) and a curative group (diagnosis was made during delivery, n = 11).

Simple assay of plasma sevoflurane and its metabolite hexafluoroisopropanol by headspace GC-MS.

The anesthetic sevoflurane can now be delivered over periods of up to 48h using a newly developed medical system, the AnaConDa (anesthetic conserving device). Lack of pharmacokinetic data on sevoflurane and its main metabolite (hexafluoroisopropanol, HFIP) in this indication prompted us to develop a headspace GC-MS method to quantify the two substances. The only previously published method for assaying the two substances could not be adapted to our study since it uses expensive and rarely employed system components together with toxic carbon disulfide as a dilution solvent.

Comparison of acceptability, skin tolerance, and compliance between handwashing and alcohol-based handrub in ICUs: results of a multicentric study.

Objective: We compared handwashing (HW) and alcohol-based handrub (ABH) for skin tolerance, acceptability, and hand hygiene compliance in health-care workers (HCWs) in a multicentric study.

Design And Setting: Before/after study over two periods (P1 and P2) in seven ICUs. Monitoring of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) acquisition in two ICUs (U4 and U6).