Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for vaso-occlusive crises in nine patients with sickle-cell disease.

Introduction: Vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) is the most frequent complication of sickle-cell disease and is associated with significant acute bone pain.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for severe VOC.

Methods: We report our retrospective experience with HBOT in VOC in nine patients and 15 HBOT sessions.

Prompt and successful toxin-targeting treatment of three patients with necrotizing pneumonia due to Staphylococcus aureus strains carrying the Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes.

Three patients with extensive necrotizing pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive Staphylococcus aureus strains and with aggravating factors (leukopenia count of less than 3x10(9)/liter in all three cases and hemoptysis in two cases) were successfully treated with toxin-suppressing agents introduced rapidly after hospital admission.

[Promotility drugs use in critical care: indications and limits?].

Enteral feeding is often limited by gastric and intestinal motility disturbances in critically ill patients, particularly in patients with shock. So, promotility agents are frequently used to improve tolerance to enteral nutrition. This review summaries the pathophysiology, presents the available pharmacological strategies, the clinical data, the counter-indications and the principal limits.

[Successful treatment of life-threatening Panton-Valentine leucocidin positive Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia with antibiotics and immunoglobulins targeting the toxin production].

We report a patient who presented a severe Panton-Valentine-secreting methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia with threatening multi-organ failure including acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiac failure, renal failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation. Clinical and biological disease course using empiric therapy with treatment directed against toxin production (linezolid, clindamycin and intravenous immunoglobulins) was found to be quickly effective.

[Antitoxin treatments for necrotizing pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine leukocidin-secreting Staphylococcus aureus].

Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for two main clinical presentations in humans: suppurative infections and toxigenic diseases. A small percentage of S. aureus strains secrete Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL).