Transient Megaesophagus Following Coral Snake Envenomation in Three Dogs (2013–2018)

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 320
Author(s):  
Justin Andrew Heinz ◽  
Joseph Mankin ◽  
Medora Pashmakova

ABSTRACT A 12 yr old dachshund, a 7 yr old English springer spaniel, and a 1.5 yr old French bulldog presented following envenomation by a coral snake. Each patient displayed evidence of varying degrees of lower motor neuron dysfunction, but all three developed transient megaesophagus. Two patients developed secondary aspiration pneumonia, with one requiring mechanical ventilation, which the owners declined, resulting in euthanasia. The third developed hypoventilation without aspiration pneumonia, was mechanically ventilated, and was successfully weaned. In the two surviving patients, the megaesophagus resolved by time of discharge. Coral snake envenomation is an uncommon occurrence, and these are the first documented cases of transient megaesophagus secondary to a North American species.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Papazian ◽  
◽  
Samir Jaber ◽  
Sami Hraiech ◽  
Karine Baumstarck ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The effect of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation on the length of mechanical ventilation and mortality in immunocompetent ICU patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation remains controversial. The main objective of this study was to determine whether preemptive intravenous ganciclovir increases the number of ventilator-free days in patients with CMV blood reactivation. Methods This double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial involved 19 ICUs in France. Seventy-six adults ≥ 18 years old who had been mechanically ventilated for at least 96 h, expected to remain on mechanical ventilation for ≥ 48 h, and exhibited reactivation of CMV in blood were enrolled between February 5th, 2014, and January 23rd, 2019. Participants were randomized to receive ganciclovir 5 mg/kg bid for 14 days (n = 39) or a matching placebo (n = 37). Results The primary endpoint was ventilator-free days from randomization to day 60. Prespecified secondary outcomes included day 60 mortality. The trial was stopped for futility based on the results of an interim analysis by the DSMB. The subdistribution hazard ratio for being alive and weaned from mechanical ventilation at day 60 for patients receiving ganciclovir (N = 39) compared with control patients (N = 37) was 1.14 (95% CI from 0.63 to 2.06; P = 0.66). The median [IQR] numbers of ventilator-free days for ganciclovir-treated patients and controls were 10 [0–51] and 0 [0–43] days, respectively (P = 0.46). Mortality at day 60 was 41% in patients in the ganciclovir group and 43% in the placebo group (P = .845). Creatinine levels and blood cells counts did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusions In patients mechanically ventilated for ≥ 96 h with CMV reactivation in blood, preemptive ganciclovir did not improve the outcome.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongfang Zhou ◽  
Steven R. Holets ◽  
Man Li ◽  
Gustavo A. Cortes-Puentes ◽  
Todd J. Meyer ◽  
...  

AbstractPatient–ventilator asynchrony (PVA) is commonly encountered during mechanical ventilation of critically ill patients. Estimates of PVA incidence vary widely. Type, risk factors, and consequences of PVA remain unclear. We aimed to measure the incidence and identify types of PVA, characterize risk factors for development, and explore the relationship between PVA and outcome among critically ill, mechanically ventilated adult patients admitted to medical, surgical, and medical-surgical intensive care units in a large academic institution staffed with varying provider training background. A single center, retrospective cohort study of all adult critically ill patients undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation for ≥ 12 h. A total of 676 patients who underwent 696 episodes of mechanical ventilation were included. Overall PVA occurred in 170 (24%) episodes. Double triggering 92(13%) was most common, followed by flow starvation 73(10%). A history of smoking, and pneumonia, sepsis, or ARDS were risk factors for overall PVA and double triggering (all P < 0.05). Compared with volume targeted ventilation, pressure targeted ventilation decreased the occurrence of events (all P < 0.01). During volume controlled synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation and pressure targeted ventilation, ventilator settings were associated with the incidence of overall PVA. The number of overall PVA, as well as double triggering and flow starvation specifically, were associated with worse outcomes and fewer hospital-free days (all P < 0.01). Double triggering and flow starvation are the most common PVA among critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. Overall incidence as well as double triggering and flow starvation PVA specifically, portend worse outcome.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (S2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Longxiang Su ◽  
Chun Liu ◽  
Fengxiang Chang ◽  
Bo Tang ◽  
Lin Han ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Analgesia and sedation therapy are commonly used for critically ill patients, especially mechanically ventilated patients. From the initial nonsedation programs to deep sedation and then to on-demand sedation, the understanding of sedation therapy continues to deepen. However, according to different patient’s condition, understanding the individual patient’s depth of sedation needs remains unclear. Methods The public open source critical illness database Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III was used in this study. Latent profile analysis was used as a clustering method to classify mechanically ventilated patients based on 36 variables. Principal component analysis dimensionality reduction was used to select the most influential variables. The ROC curve was used to evaluate the classification accuracy of the model. Results Based on 36 characteristic variables, we divided patients undergoing mechanical ventilation and sedation and analgesia into two categories with different mortality rates, then further reduced the dimensionality of the data and obtained the 9 variables that had the greatest impact on classification, most of which were ventilator parameters. According to the Richmond-ASS scores, the two phenotypes of patients had different degrees of sedation and analgesia, and the corresponding ventilator parameters were also significantly different. We divided the validation cohort into three different levels of sedation, revealing that patients with high ventilator conditions needed a deeper level of sedation, while patients with low ventilator conditions required reduction in the depth of sedation as soon as possible to promote recovery and avoid reinjury. Conclusion Through latent profile analysis and dimensionality reduction, we divided patients treated with mechanical ventilation and sedation and analgesia into two categories with different mortalities and obtained 9 variables that had the greatest impact on classification, which revealed that the depth of sedation was limited by the condition of the respiratory system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-233
Author(s):  
Claudio Cataldi

AbstractThe present study provides a full edition and commentary of the three glossaries in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barlow 35, fol. 57r–v. These glossaries, which were first partly edited and discussed by Liebermann (1894), are comprised of excerpts from Ælfric’s Grammar and Glossary arranged by subject. The selection of material from the two Ælfrician works witnesses to the interests of the glossator. The first glossary in Barlow 35 collects Latin grammatical terms and verbs followed by their Old English equivalents. The second glossary is drawn from the chapter on plant names of Ælfric’s Glossary, with interpolations from other chapters of the same work. This glossary also features twelfth-century interlinear notations, which seem to have a metatextual function. The third glossary combines excerpts from Ælfric’s Glossary with verbs derived from the Grammar. Liebermann transcribed only part of the glosses and gave a brief commentary on the glossaries as well as parallels with Zupitza’s (1880) edition of Ælfric’s Grammar and Glossary; hence the need for a new edition, which is provided in the present study, along with a comprehensive discussion of the glossaries and a reassessment of the correspondences concerning their Ælfrician sources.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago G. Bassi ◽  
Elizabeth C. Rohrs ◽  
Karl C. Fernandez ◽  
Marlena Ornowska ◽  
Michelle Nicholas ◽  
...  

AbstractMechanical ventilation is the cornerstone of the Intensive Care Unit. However, it has been associated with many negative consequences. Recently, ventilator-induced brain injury has been reported in rodents under injurious ventilation settings. Our group wanted to explore the extent of brain injury after 50 h of mechanical ventilation, sedation and physical immobility, quantifying hippocampal apoptosis and inflammation, in a normal-lung porcine study. After 50 h of lung-protective mechanical ventilation, sedation and immobility, greater levels of hippocampal apoptosis and neuroinflammation were clearly observed in the mechanically ventilated group, in comparison to a never-ventilated group. Markers in the serum for astrocyte damage and neuronal damage were also higher in the mechanically ventilated group. Therefore, our study demonstrated that considerable hippocampal insult can be observed after 50 h of lung-protective mechanical ventilation, sedation and physical immobility.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Demiselle ◽  
Enrico Calzia ◽  
Clair Hartmann ◽  
David Alexander Christian Messerer ◽  
Pierre Asfar ◽  
...  

AbstractThere is an ongoing discussion whether hyperoxia, i.e. ventilation with high inspiratory O2 concentrations (FIO2), and the consecutive hyperoxaemia, i.e. supraphysiological arterial O2 tensions (PaO2), have a place during the acute management of circulatory shock. This concept is based on experimental evidence that hyperoxaemia may contribute to the compensation of the imbalance between O2 supply and requirements. However, despite still being common practice, its use is limited due to possible oxygen toxicity resulting from the increased formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) limits, especially under conditions of ischaemia/reperfusion. Several studies have reported that there is a U-shaped relation between PaO2 and mortality/morbidity in ICU patients. Interestingly, these mostly retrospective studies found that the lowest mortality coincided with PaO2 ~ 150 mmHg during the first 24 h of ICU stay, i.e. supraphysiological PaO2 levels. Most of the recent large-scale retrospective analyses studied general ICU populations, but there are major differences according to the underlying pathology studied as well as whether medical or surgical patients are concerned. Therefore, as far as possible from the data reported, we focus on the need of mechanical ventilation as well as the distinction between the absence or presence of circulatory shock. There seems to be no ideal target PaO2 except for avoiding prolonged exposure (> 24 h) to either hypoxaemia (PaO2 < 55–60 mmHg) or supraphysiological (PaO2 > 100 mmHg). Moreover, the need for mechanical ventilation, absence or presence of circulatory shock and/or the aetiology of tissue dysoxia, i.e. whether it is mainly due to impaired macro- and/or microcirculatory O2 transport and/or disturbed cellular O2 utilization, may determine whether any degree of hyperoxaemia causes deleterious side effects.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard J. Graziani ◽  
Alan R. Spitzer ◽  
Donald G. Mitchell ◽  
Daniel A. Merton ◽  
Christian Stanley ◽  
...  

Surviving preterm infants of less than 34 weeks' gestation who were selected on the basis of serial cranial ultrasonographic findings during their nursery course had repeated neurologic and developmental examinations during late infancy and early childhood that established the presence (n = 46) or absence (n = 205) of spastic forms of cerebral palsy. Of the 205 infants without cerebral palsy, 22 scored abnormally low on standardized developmental testing during early childhood. The need for mechanical ventilation beginning on the first day of life (n = 92) was significantly related to gestational age, birth weight, Apgar scores, patent ductus arteriosus, grade III/IV intracranial hemorrhage, large periventricular cysts, and the development of cerebral palsy. In the 192 mechanically ventilated infants, vaginal bleeding during the third trimester, low Apgar scores, and maximally low Pco2 values during the first 3 days of life were significantly related to large periventricular cysts (n = 41) and cerebral palsy (n = 43), but not to developmental delay in the absence of cerebral palsy (n = 18). The severity of intracranial hemorrhage in mechanically ventilated infants was significantly associated with gestational age and maximally low measurements of Pco2 and pH, but not with Apgar scores or maximally low measurements of Po2. Logistic regression analyses controlling for possible confounding variables disclosed that Pco2 values of less than 17 mm Hg during the first 3 days of life in mechanically ventilated infants were associated with a significantly increased risk of moderate to severe periventricular echodensity, large periventricular cysts, grade III/IV intracranial hemorrhage, and cerebral palsy. Neurosonographic abnormalities were highly predictive of cerebral palsy independent of Pco2 measurements. However, neither hypocarbia nor neurosonographic abnormalities were associated with a significantly increased risk of developmental delay in the absence of cerebral palsy. In this preterm infant population, therefore, the risk factors for developmental delay differed from those predictive of spastic forms of cerebral palsy. Of the 57 ventilated preterm infants who were exposed to a maximally low Pco2 of less than 20 mm Hg at least once during the first 3 days of life, 21 developed large periventricular cysts or cerebral palsy or both. Those results suggest that prenatal and neonatal factors including the need for mechanical ventilation beginning on the first day of life and marked hypocarbia during the first 3 postnatal days are associated with an increased risk of damage to the periventricular white matter of some preterm infants. However, a causal relationship between hypocarbia and brain damage in preterm infants remains unproven.


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