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Failure of weaning from mechanical ventilation in COPD patients is often related to diaphragmatic fatigue. Whether there is a central respiratory drive fatigue and a reserve of excitability is still [...]

L’infection est un risque pour toute intervention et, par exemple, en chirurgie l’on retrouve des bactéries pathogènes dans plus de 90 % des plaies opératoires, lors de la fermeture. Ceci existe quelle que soit la technique chirurgicale et quel que soit l’environnement (le flux laminaire ne supprime pas complètement ce risque). Ces bactéries sont peu nombreuses mais peuvent proliférer. Elles trouvent dans la plaie opératoire un milieu favorable (hématome, ischémie, modification du potentiel d’oxydoréduction…) et l’intervention induit des anomalies des défenses immunitaires. En cas d’implantation de matériel étranger le risque est majoré. L’objectif de l’antibioprophylaxie (ABP) est de s’opposer à la prolifération bactérienne afin de diminuer le risque d’infection du site de l’intervention. La consultation préopératoire représente un moment privilégié pour décider de la prescription d’une ABP. Il est possible d’y définir le type d’intervention prévu, le risque infectieux qui s’y rapporte (et donc la nécessité ou non d’une ABP), le moment de la prescription avant l’intervention et d’éventuels antécédents allergiques pouvant modifier le choix de la molécule antibiotique sélectionnée.

Background:Mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP) increases with severity in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We investigated whether changes of MR-proANP correlated to bacteremia.Methods:392 adult patients with CAP visiting emergency department from a prospective observational multicenter study.Results:MR-proANP levels increased in patients with positive bacteremia (92.8 pmol/L vs. 84.3 pmol/L, p = 0.04). Performance of MR-proANP to detect bacteremia (0.60) was equivalent to CRP (0.59) but less accurate than PCT (0.69).Conclusion:MR-ANP poorly predicts bacteremia in CAP patients.

repérer les médicaments psychotropes faisant l’objet d’un mésusage par « deal » au sein d’une population de sujets gardés à vue à Paris intra-muros.

Total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA) has become more popular because of its ease-of-use and because there are fewer side effects. Nevertheless, this technique is more expensive because it uses new drugs such as propofol and remifentanil. Economic evaluation shows that its cost is up to four times greater than that of inhalational anaesthesia. Target-controlled anaesthesia is even more expensive, being up to twice the price of manually controlled infusion of propofol. Drug wastage is a major origin of expenditure. The gain in indirect costs because of the reduction of side effects with TIVA does not decrease its total cost compared with other techniques for anaesthesia. Bispectral index monitoring does not seem to have any effect on cost reduction, but further studies are needed.

Febrile neutropenia (FN) is common in cancer patients receiving myelotoxic therapy. The procedures to treat FN are well established in oncology, but it is unclear whether management is adequate in the emergency department (ED).

Introduction A major issue raised by the public health consequences of a heat wave is the difficulty of detecting its direct consequences on patient outcome, particularly because of the delay in obtaining definitive mortality results. Since emergency department (ED) activity reflects the global increase of patients' health problems during this period, the profile of patients referred to EDs might be a basis to detect an excess mortality in the catchment area. Our objective was to develop a real-time surveillance model based on ED data to detect excessive heat-related mortality as early as possible.Methods A day-to-day composite indicator was built using simple and easily obtainable variables related to patients referred to the ED during the 2003 heat-wave period. The design involved a derivation and validation study based on a real-time surveillance system of two EDs at Cochin Hospital and Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, Paris, France. The participants were 99,976 adult patients registered from 1 May to 30 September during 2001, 2002 and 2003. Among these participants, 3,297, 3,580 and 3,851 patients were referred to the EDs from 3 August to 19 August for 2001, 2002 and 2003, respectively. Variables retained for the indicator were selected using the receiver operating characteristic curve methodology and polynomial regression.Results The indicator was composed of only three variables: the percentage of patients older than 70 years, the percentage of patients with body temperature above 39°C, and the percentage of patients admitted to or who died in the ED. The curve of the indicator with time appropriately fitted the overall mortality that occurred in the region of interest.Conclusion A composite and simple index based on real-time surveillance was developed according to the profile of patients who visited the ED. It appeared suitable for determining the overall mortality in the corresponding region submitted to the 2003 heat wave. This index should help early warning of excessive mortality and monitoring the efficacy of public health interventions.