Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most frequent ICU-acquired infections. Reported incidences vary widely from 5 to 40% depending on the setting and diagnostic criteria. VAP is ...associated with prolonged duration of mechanical ventilation and ICU stay. The estimated attributable mortality of VAP is around 10%, with higher mortality rates in surgical ICU patients and in patients with mid-range severity scores at admission. Microbiological confirmation of infection is strongly encouraged. Which sampling method to use is still a matter of controversy. Emerging microbiological tools will likely modify our routine approach to diagnosing and treating VAP in the next future. Prevention of VAP is based on minimizing the exposure to mechanical ventilation and encouraging early liberation. Bundles that combine multiple prevention strategies may improve outcomes, but large randomized trials are needed to confirm this. Treatment should be limited to 7 days in the vast majority of the cases. Patients should be reassessed daily to confirm ongoing suspicion of disease, antibiotics should be narrowed as soon as antibiotic susceptibility results are available, and clinicians should consider stopping antibiotics if cultures are negative.
In ARDS patients, the change from supine to prone position generates a more even distribution of the gas–tissue ratios along the dependent–nondependent axis and a more homogeneous distribution of ...lung stress and strain. The change to prone position is generally accompanied by a marked improvement in arterial blood gases, which is mainly due to a better overall ventilation/perfusion matching. Improvement in oxygenation and reduction in mortality are the main reasons to implement prone position in patients with ARDS. The main reason explaining a decreased mortality is less overdistension in non-dependent lung regions and less cyclical opening and closing in dependent lung regions. The only absolute contraindication for implementing prone position is an unstable spinal fracture. The maneuver to change from supine to prone and vice versa requires a skilled team of 4–5 caregivers. The most frequent adverse events are pressure sores and facial edema. Recently, the use of prone position has been extended to non-intubated spontaneously breathing patients affected with COVID-19 ARDS. The effects of this intervention on outcomes are still uncertain.
Fifteen recommendations and a therapeutic algorithm regarding the management of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) at the early phase in adults are proposed. The Grade of Recommendation ...Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology has been followed. Four recommendations (low tidal volume, plateau pressure limitation, no oscillatory ventilation, and prone position) had a high level of proof (GRADE 1 + or 1 −); four (high positive end-expiratory pressure PEEP in moderate and severe ARDS, muscle relaxants, recruitment maneuvers, and venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation ECMO) a low level of proof (GRADE 2 + or 2 −); seven (surveillance, tidal volume for non ARDS mechanically ventilated patients, tidal volume limitation in the presence of low plateau pressure, PEEP > 5 cmH2O, high PEEP in the absence of deleterious effect, pressure mode allowing spontaneous ventilation after the acute phase, and nitric oxide) corresponded to a level of proof that did not allow use of the GRADE classification and were expert opinions. Lastly, for three aspects of ARDS management (driving pressure, early spontaneous ventilation, and extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal), the experts concluded that no sound recommendation was possible given current knowledge. The recommendations and the therapeutic algorithm were approved by the experts with strong agreement.
Abstract
Beside the commonly described pulmonary expression of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), major vascular events have been reported. The objective of this study was to investigate ...whether increased levels of circulating endothelial cells (CECs) might be associated with severe forms of COVID-19. Ninety-nine patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in this retrospective study. Patients in the intensive care units (ICU) had significantly higher CEC counts than non-ICU patients and the extent of endothelial injury was correlated with putative markers of disease severity and inflammatory cytokines. Together, these data provide in vivo evidence that endothelial injury is a key feature of COVID-19.
Driving pressure (ΔPrs) across the respiratory system is suggested as the strongest predictor of hospital mortality in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We wonder whether this ...result is related to the range of tidal volume (V
). Therefore, we investigated ΔPrs in two trials in which strict lung-protective mechanical ventilation was applied in ARDS. Our working hypothesis was that ΔPrs is a risk factor for mortality just like compliance (Crs) or plateau pressure (Pplat,rs) of the respiratory system.
We performed secondary analysis of data from 787 ARDS patients enrolled in two independent randomized controlled trials evaluating distinct adjunctive techniques while they were ventilated as in the low V
arm of the ARDSnet trial. For this study, we used V
, positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), Pplat,rs, Crs, ΔPrs, and respiratory rate recorded 24 hours after randomization, and compared them between survivors and nonsurvivors at day 90. Patients were followed for 90 days after inclusion. Cox proportional hazard modeling was used for mortality at day 90. If colinearity between ΔPrs, Crs, and Pplat,rs was verified, specific Cox models were used for each of them.
Both trials enrolled 805 patients of whom 787 had day-1 data available, and 533 of these survived. In the univariate analysis, ΔPrs averaged 13.7 ± 3.7 and 12.8 ± 3.7 cmH
O (P = 0.002) in nonsurvivors and survivors, respectively. Colinearity between ΔPrs, Crs and Pplat,rs, which was expected as these variables are mathematically coupled, was statistically significant. Hazard ratios from the Cox models for day-90 mortality were 1.05 (1.02-1.08) (P = 0.005), 1.05 (1.01-1.08) (P = 0.008) and 0.985 (0.972-0.985) (P = 0.029) for ΔPrs, Pplat,rs and Crs, respectively. PEEP and V
were not associated with death in any model.
When ventilating patients with low V
, ΔPrs is a risk factor for death in ARDS patients, as is Pplat,rs or Crs. As our data originated from trials from which most ARDS patients were excluded due to strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, these findings must be validated in independent observational studies in patients ventilated with a lung protective strategy.
Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00299650 . Registered 6 March 2006 for the Acurasys trial. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00527813 . Registered 10 September 2007 for the Proseva trial.
Oxygen therapy can be delivered using low-flow, intermediate-flow (air entrainment mask), or high-flow devices. Low/intermediate-flow oxygen devices have several drawbacks that cause critically ill ...patients discomfort and translate into suboptimal clinical results. These include limitation of the FiO
2
(due to the high inspiratory flow often observed in patients with respiratory failure), and insufficient humidification and warming of the inspired gas. High-flow nasal cannula oxygenation (HFNCO) delivers oxygen flow rates of up to 60 L/min and over the last decade its effect on clinical outcomes has widely been evaluated, such as in the improvement of respiratory distress, the need for intubation, and mortality. Mechanisms of action of HFNCO are complex and not limited to the increased oxygen flow rate. The main aim of this review is to guide clinicians towards evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. It summarizes current knowledge about HFNCO use in ICU patients and the potential areas of uncertainties. For instance, it has been recently suggested that HFNCO could improve the outcome of patients with hypoxemic acute respiratory failure. In other settings, research is ongoing and additional evidence is needed. For instance, if intubation is required, studies suggest that HFNCO may help to improve preoxygenation and can be used after extubation. Likewise, HFNCO might be used in obese patients, or to prevent respiratory deterioration in hypoxemic patients requiring bronchoscopy, or for the delivery of aerosol therapy. However, areas for which conclusive data exist are limited and interventions using standardized HFNCO protocols, comparators, and relevant clinical outcomes are warranted.
Rapid response teams are intended to improve early diagnosis and intervention in ward patients who develop acute respiratory or circulatory failure. A management protocol including the use of a ...handheld ultrasound device for immediate point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) examination at the bedside may improve team performance. The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of implementing such a POCUS-guided management on the proportion of adequate immediate diagnoses in two groups. Secondary endpoints included time to treatment and patient outcomes.
A prospective, observational, controlled study was conducted in a single university hospital. Two teams alternated every other day for managing in-hospital ward patients developing acute respiratory and/or circulatory failures. Only one of the team used an ultrasound device (POCUS group).
We included 165 patients (POCUS group 83, control group 82). Proportion of adequate immediate diagnoses was 94% in the POCUS group and 80% in the control group (p = 0.009). Time to first treatment/intervention was shorter in the POCUS group (15 10-25 min vs. 34 15-40 min, p < 0.001). In-hospital mortality rates were 17% in the POCUS group and 35% in the control group (p = 0.007), but this difference was not confirmed in the propensity score sample (29% vs. 34%, p = 0.53).
Our study suggests that protocolized use of a handheld POCUS device at the bedside in the ward may improve the proportion of adequate diagnosis, the time to initial treatment and perhaps also survival of ward patients developing acute respiratory or circulatory failure. Clinical Trial Registration NCT02967809. Registered 18 November 2016, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02967809 .
In patients undergoing mechanical ventilation for the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), neuromuscular blocking agents may improve oxygenation and decrease ventilator-induced lung injury but ...may also cause muscle weakness. We evaluated clinical outcomes after 2 days of therapy with neuromuscular blocking agents in patients with early, severe ARDS.
In this multicenter, double-blind trial, 340 patients presenting to the intensive care unit (ICU) with an onset of severe ARDS within the previous 48 hours were randomly assigned to receive, for 48 hours, either cisatracurium besylate (178 patients) or placebo (162 patients). Severe ARDS was defined as a ratio of the partial pressure of arterial oxygen (PaO2) to the fraction of inspired oxygen (FIO2) of less than 150, with a positive end-expiratory pressure of 5 cm or more of water and a tidal volume of 6 to 8 ml per kilogram of predicted body weight. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who died either before hospital discharge or within 90 days after study enrollment (i.e., the 90-day in-hospital mortality rate), adjusted for predefined covariates and baseline differences between groups with the use of a Cox model.
The hazard ratio for death at 90 days in the cisatracurium group, as compared with the placebo group, was 0.68 (95% confidence interval CI, 0.48 to 0.98; P=0.04), after adjustment for both the baseline PaO2:FIO2 and plateau pressure and the Simplified Acute Physiology II score. The crude 90-day mortality was 31.6% (95% CI, 25.2 to 38.8) in the cisatracurium group and 40.7% (95% CI, 33.5 to 48.4) in the placebo group (P=0.08). Mortality at 28 days was 23.7% (95% CI, 18.1 to 30.5) with cisatracurium and 33.3% (95% CI, 26.5 to 40.9) with placebo (P=0.05). The rate of ICU-acquired paresis did not differ significantly between the two groups.
In patients with severe ARDS, early administration of a neuromuscular blocking agent improved the adjusted 90-day survival and increased the time off the ventilator without increasing muscle weakness. (Funded by Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille and the Programme Hospitalier de Recherche Clinique Régional 2004-26 of the French Ministry of Health; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00299650.)
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