Can venous cannula design influence venous return and negative pressure with a minimally invasive extracorporeal circulation?

Introduction: Recent advances to make cardiopulmonary bypass more physiological include the use of kinetic-assisted venous drainage but without a venous reservoir. Despite manipulation of intravascular volume and patient positioning, arterial flow is frequently reduced. Negative venous line pressures can be generated, which may elicit gaseous microemboli.

An experimental model to measure the ability of headphones with active noise control to reduce patient's exposure to noise in an intensive care unit.

Background: Defining the association between excessive noise in intensive care units, sleep disturbance and morbidity, including delirium, is confounded by the difficulty of implementing successful strategies to reduce patient's exposure to noise. Active noise control devices may prove to be useful adjuncts but there is currently little to quantify their ability to reduce noise in this complex environment.

Methods: Sound meters were embedded in the auditory meatus of three polystyrene model heads with no headphones (control), with headphones alone and with headphones using active noise control and placed in patient bays in a cardiac ICU.

Oxygen delivery during cardiopulmonary bypass (and renal outcome) using two systems of extracorporeal circulation: a retrospective review.

Objectives: To investigate the combined influence of blood flow and haemodilution with either a miniaturized (Mini-CPB) or a conventional cardiopulmonary bypass (C-CPB) circuit on average oxygen delivery during bypass. The influence of this on clinical outcome, particularly renal dysfunction after routine coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), was measured.

Methods: Retrospective analysis in two groups of 160 patients based on the surgeon's preference for bypass circuit.

Detection of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid in various drink matrices via AccuTOF-DART.

A new screening method for detecting gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in drink matrices, using the IonSense, Inc. (Saugus, MA) direct analysis in real time (DART) ion source coupled to a JEOL exact mass time-of-flight mass spectrometer (AccuTOF), was validated and compared with the current screening methodology. The DART ion source allows for analysis of samples under ambient conditions with little to no sample preparation.

A simple aspiration test to determine the accuracy of oesophageal placement of fine-bore feeding tubes.

Objective: To evaluate whether a simple aspiration test can be used to accurately confirm the correct placement of fine-bore feeding tubes in the oesophagus and prevent their inadvertent placement in the bronchial tree.

Design: We conducted an ethically approved, randomised, blinded trial to assess the accuracy of a simple aspiration test to differentiate between oesophageal and tracheal placement.

Setting: A tertiary referral cardiothoracic surgical unit.

Evaluation of a technique for blind placement of post-pyloric feeding tubes in intensive care: application in patients with gastric ileus.

Objective: To evaluate a blind 'active' technique for the bedside placement of post-pyloric enteral feeding tubes in a critically ill population with proven gastric ileus.

Design And Setting: An open study to evaluate the success rate and duration of the technique in cardiothoracic and general intensive care units of a tertiary referral hospital.

Patients: 20 consecutive, ventilated patients requiring enteral nutrition, where feeding had failed via the gastric route.

Strength response in human femoris muscle during 2 neuromuscular electrical stimulation programs.

Study Design: Experimental mixed repeated-measures design.

Objective: To determine the effect of 2 versus 3 neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) training sessions per week on the response to strength training of the quadriceps femoris muscle.

Background: Many studies have examined the influence of training intensity (percent maximal voluntary isometric contraction [MVIC]) during NMES on the strength response of the quadriceps femoris muscle.