[Effect of bronchial drainage on the improvement in gas exchange observed in ventral decubitus in ARDS].

Objectives: A bronchial secretion draining effect is frequently suggested as a mechanism for oxygenation improvement during prone positioning (PP) in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Nevertheless, it has never really been evaluated. The aim of this study was to search for an interrelationship between the volume of the bronchial secretion and the improvement of the PaO2/FIO2 ratio during prone positioning, with NO inhalation or not.

Ketorolac potentiates morphine in postoperative patient-controlled analgesia.

The authors conducted a prospective randomised double-blind comparison of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), with a combination of morphine and ketorolac versus morphine alone and ketorolac alone in the management of postoperative pain after orthopaedic surgery. Forty-two patients were randomly assigned to three groups. Group 1 was given 1 mg/ml morphine, group 2 was given 3 mg/ml ketorolac and group 3 half-doses of each.

Haemodynamic conditions enhancing gas embolism after venous injury during laparoscopy: a study in pigs.

This study was designed to determine the conditions that promote carbon dioxide embolism after venous injury during laparoscopy in pigs. Injury to an iliac vein was filmed during laparoscopy in the presence of a pneumoperitoneum created at increasing pressures from 0 to 30 mm Hg in 5-mm Hg increments. At intraperitoneal pressures less than 20 mm Hg, there was a parallel increase in femoral venous pressures, resulting in haemorrhage, with persistent blood flow to the inferior vena cava.

Serum erythropoietin and reticulocyte counts in inflammatory process.

The role of erythropoietin in the pathogenesis of anaemia associated with inflammatory disorders is unclear. We studied serum erythropoietin levels in patients with inflammatory process of varying aetiologies. Serum erythropoietin levels and reticulocyte counts were prospectively measured in 40 patients with inflammatory syndromes and compared with values obtained in 20 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.