Ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients undergoing major heart surgery: an incidence study in Europe.

INTRODUCTION: Patients undergoing major heart surgery (MHS) represent a special subpopulation at risk for nosocomial infections. Postoperative infection is the main non-cardiac complication after MHS and has been clearly related to increased morbidity, use of hospital resources and mortality. Our aim was to determine the incidence, aetiology, risk factors and outcome of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in patients who have undergone MHS in Europe. METHODS: Our study was a prospective study of patients undergoing MHS in Europe who developed suspicion of VAP. During a one-month period, participating units submitted a protocol of all patients admitted to their units who had undergone MHS. RESULTS: Overall, 25 hospitals in eight different European countries participated in the study. The number of patients intervened for MHS was 986. Fifteen patients were excluded because of protocol violations. One or more nosocomial infections were detected in 43 (4.4%) patients. VAP was the most frequent nosocomial infection (2.1%; 13.9 episodes per 1000 days of mechanical ventilation). The microorganisms responsible for VAP in this study were: Enterobacteriaceae (45%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (20%), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (10%) and a range of other microorganisms. We identified the following significant independent risk factors for VAP: ascending aorta surgery (odds ratio (OR) = 6.22; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.69 to 22.89), number of blood units transfused (OR = 1.08 per unit transfused; 95% CI = 1.04 to 1.13) and need for re-intervention (OR = 6.65; 95% CI = 2.10 to 21.01). The median length of stay in the intensive care unit was significantly longer (P < 0.001) in patients with VAP than in patients without VAP (23 days versus 2 days). Death was significantly more frequent (P < 0.001) in patients with VAP (35% versus 2.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing aortic surgery and those with complicated post-intervention courses, requiring multiple transfusions or re-intervention, constitute a high-risk group probably requiring more active preventive measures.

Detrended fluctuation analysis of EEG as a measure of depth of anesthesia.

For several decades, a number of methods have been developed for the noninvasive assessment of the level of consciousness during general anesthesia. In this paper, detrended fluctuation analysis is used to study the scaling behavior of the electroencephalogram as a measure of the level of consciousness. Three indexes are proposed in order to characterize the patient state. Statistical analysis demonstrates that they allow significant discrimination between the awake, sedated and anesthetized states. Two of them present a good correlation with established indexes of depth of anesthesia. The scaling behavior has been found related to the depth of anesthesia and the methodology allows real-time implementation, which enables its application in monitoring devices.

Cerebral state index during propofol anesthesia: a comparison with the bispectral index and the A-line ARX index.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to prospectively test the Cerebral State Index designed for measuring the depth of anesthesia. The Cerebral State Index is calculated using a fuzzy logic combination of four subparameters of the electroencephalographic signal. The performance of the Cerebral State Index was compared with that of the Bispectral Index and the A-Line ARX Index. METHODS: This study applied raw data from two previously published clinical protocols. The patients in protocol 1 were given a continuous propofol infusion, 300 ml/h, until 80% of burst suppression occurred. In protocol 2, a stepwise increased target-controlled infusion of propofol was administered to patients until loss of response to noxious stimuli while the Observer's Assessment of Alertness and Sedation was registered every 4 min. The Cerebral State Index was calculated off-line from the recorded electroencephalographic data. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient between electronic indices and the effect site concentration of propofol was calculated along with the prediction probability of each index to predict the Observer's Assessment of Alertness and Sedation level. RESULTS: The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between the Cerebral State Index, Bispectral Index, and A-Line ARX Index and the propofol effect site concentration were -0.94, -0.89, and -0.82, respectively, in protocol 1, whereas the prediction probability values between the Cerebral State Index, Bispectral Index, and A-Line ARX Index and the Observer's Assessment of Alertness and Sedation score in protocol 2 were 0.92, 0.93, and 0.91, respectively. CONCLUSION: The Cerebral State Index detects well the graduated levels of propofol anesthesia when compared with the propofol effect site concentration and the Observer's Assessment of Alertness and Sedation score.

Inhaled nitric oxide therapy in adults: European expert recommendations.

BACKGROUND: Inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) has been used for treatment of acute respiratory failure and pulmonary hypertension since 1991 in adult patients in the perioperative setting and in critical care. METHODS: This contribution assesses evidence for the use of iNO in this population as presented to a expert group jointly organised by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiologists. CONCLUSIONS: Expert recommendations on the use of iNO in adults were agreed on following presentation of the evidence at the expert meeting held in June 2004.

Comparison of conventional averaged and rapid averaged, autoregressive-based extracted auditory evoked potentials for monitoring the hypnotic level during propofol induction.

BACKGROUND: The extraction of the middle latency auditory evoked potentials (MLAEP) is usually done by moving time averaging (MTA) over many sweeps (often 250-1,000), which could produce a delay of more than 1 min. This problem was addressed by applying an autoregressive model with exogenous input (ARX) that enables extraction of the auditory evoked potentials (AEP) within 15 sweeps. The objective of this study was to show that an AEP could be extracted faster by ARX than by MTA and with the same reliability. METHODS: The MTA and ARX methods were compared with the Modified Observer's Assessment of Alertness and Sedation Scale (MOAAS) in 15 patients scheduled for cardiac surgery and anesthetized with propofol. The peak amplitudes and latencies were recorded continuously for the MTA- and ARX-extracted AEP. An index, AAI, was derived from the ARX-extracted AEP as well. RESULTS: The best predictors of the awake and anesthetized states, in terms of the prediction probability, Pk, were the AAI (Pk [SE] = 0.93 [0.01]) and Na-Pa amplitude (MTA, Pk [SE] = 0.89 [0.02]; ARX, Pk [SE] = 0.87[0.02]). When comparing the AAI at the MOAAS levels 5-3 versus 2-0, significant differences were achieved. During the transitions from awake to asleep, the ARX-extracted AEP were obtained with significantly less delay than the MTA-extracted AEP (28.4 s vs. 6 s). CONCLUSION: The authors conclude that the MLAEP peaks and the AAI correlate well to the MOAAS, whether extracted by MTA or ARX, but the ARX method produced a significantly shorter delay than the MTA.

Control de calidad en los servicios clínicos: una práctica de autoevaluación / Quality control of clinical services: a self-evaluation practice

Una vez implantado el Programa de Control de Calidad Asistencial en el Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau y tras seis años de funcionamiento, se plantea como segundo paso trasladar el modelo general a los propios servicios clínicos, en un intento de realizar una autoevaluación directa por los facultativos. Se describe la metodología utilizada en algunos Servicios (Anestesiología-Reanimación, Medicina Intensiva, Otorrinolaringología) y algunos de los resultados más relevantes. Se concluye que el control de calidad en los servicios clínicos, aunque de implementación lenta y difícil, es un buen sistema para asegurar una práctica correcta de la totalidad de los miembros del Servicio