[Prognostic factors and etiology in patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia admitted at the ICU. Spanish multicenter study. Study Group on Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Spain].

Objective: To determine the techniques used for the etiological diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and to describe the predominant causative organisms as well as prognostic factors of ICU mortality.

Patients And Methods: A total of 262 patients with community-acquired pneumonia admitted to 26 ICUs between 1 November of 1991 and 31 October of 1992 were included in a prospective, open, multicenter study.

Results: The diagnostic techniques most frequently used were blood culture (243 cases) and simple tracheal aspirate (166 cases).

Traumatic rupture of the pericardium. Case report and literature review.

Rupture of the pericardium due to blunt thoracic trauma is a rare pathology with a range of mortality between 30 and 64% according to different authors. We review 40 cases which have been reported in the literature in the last decade and report a case of our own. We have found that 82% of the patients with traumatic rupture of the pericardium were men with a mean age of 45 years.