Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020672 (hypothermia)
 17,327 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

With complex and extensive pharmacological effects, corticosteroids are widely used in many clinical situations. A survey conducted to define the role of corticosteroids in various settings of peri-operative and critical care gave strong evidence to support that the use of corticosteroid is absolutely indicated in patients with adrenal insufficiency, asthma, anaphylaxis, acute spinal cord injury, and increased ICP resulting from brain tumors. As the benefits of corticosteroids are much in evidence, their uses are recommended to extend to postoperative antiemesis, acute respiratory failure (such as ARDS, COPD, and fat embolism), increased ICP associated with brain abscess, thyroid storm, and refractory hypothermia. Beneficial effect could be expected in septic shock with high-dose corticosteroids. Despite extensive reports on their versatile usefulness, evidence-based review did not recommend the use of corticosteroids in increased ICP associated with traumatic head injury and cerebral infarct, cardiac arrest, post-extubation airway edema, and aspiration pneumonia due to poor effectiveness let alone further worsening of the conditions. Great caution must be taken in clinical situations where administration of corticosteroids is considered contraindicated such as systemic fungal infection, hypersensitivity to the drug, intramuscular injection in idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, vaccination with live virus.
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PMID:An evidence-based review on the use of corticosteroids in peri-operative and critical care. 1219 90

A 29-year-old woman with a tubular thoracic aortic graft prosthesis, placed after repair of a postcoarctation site aneurysm, was reoperated due to fungal infection of the prosthesis. A left thoracotomy was performed and single lung ventilation established through a double lumen tube followed by extracorporeal circulation (ECC), deep hypothermia, and cessation of blood circulation. The venous drainage tube was placed in the right pulmonary artery and arterial return was located in the descending aorta. After replacement of the prosthesis and interruption of ECC, attempts to ventilate the right lung failed. Fiberoptic examination revealed that the carina and tracheal wall completely occluded the opening of the right main bronchus. ECC was interrupted and the left lung was ventilated, but after withdrawal of the tube from the pulmonary artery and repositioning the patient in supine decubitus, oxygenation and right lung ventilation improved. The patient was extubated after 20 hours and discharged home 6 weeks later.
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PMID:[Right main bronchus obstruction in a patient intubated with a left double-lumen tube for thoracic aortic surgery]. 1682 72

This study is a retrospective analysis of death, adverse events (AE), fungal infections, and hepatic function among recipients of liver transplantation at high risk of fungal infection who received prophylactic treatment with caspofungin. After reviewing data of 105 patients who had received isolated liver transplant between January 2003 and April 2007, we identified and analyzed 82 high-risk patients. Post-transplant patients at high risk for fungal infection are commonly defined by the presence of at least one of the following: (i) re-transplantation; (ii) re-operation; (iii) renal dysfunction. However, in our practice, patients are also considered at high risk for developing fungal infections if they present with the following: (iv) fever of unknown origin; (v) hypothermia; (vi) positive random culture for fungus at the time of transplant (bile and/or ascites); (vii) sepsis; (viii) use of vasopressors; (ix) re-intubation, during the first hospitalization after liver transplant; (x) prolonged intubation (>24 h), and (xi) acute respiratory distress syndrome, until negative fungal cultures are obtained. Exact conditional logistic regression was used to compare the risk of death, AEs, and fungal infections between patients who received caspofungin, other antifungal drugs, and no antifungal drugs. Analyses were then performed with SAS 9.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Patients were between 27 and 72 yr old (mean = 55), with two-thirds male and three-quarters Caucasian. Sixteen patients received caspofungin (11 preventively), and 32 received other antifungal (26 preventively). There were no proven fungal infections among the patients who received caspofungin, three infections among patients who received other antifungal (3/26 = 12%), and 14 infections among patients who were not preventively treated (14/45 = 31%). These infection rates were significantly different across the three groups (p = 0.029), with caspofungin and other antifungal preventive treatment comparable (p = 0.540), and both better than no preventive treatment at all (OR = 0.15, p = 0.049, for caspofungin versus no preventive treatment; OR = 0.29, p = 0.085, for other antifungal versus no preventive treatment). Caspofungin appears to be an effective preventive agent against fungal infections when used in recipients of liver transplant designated as high risk for fungal infection. Usage of caspofungin in these patients does not carry an apparent increase in risk of death or acute cellular rejection, although we observed a significantly higher risk of AEs, especially acute renal failure (p = 0.001), in patients who received this agent.
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PMID:A retrospective analysis of the use of caspofungin in recipients of liver transplant with a modified high index of suspicion for fungal infection. A critical review of mortality, acute cellular rejection, infections, and changes in the liver function tests while on caspofungin. 2066 81