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Cardiac surgery may lead to various neuropsychiatric conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) included a new complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) disorder in addition to PTSD. This study aimed to explore whether cardiac surgery could be associated with PTSD and CPTSD at a five-year follow-up after cardiac surgery. The study sample comprised 210 patients (mean age 67, 69.5% male) who had undergone cardiac surgery. The self-report International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) was used to assess ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD. The Medical Outcomes Study 36 Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire was used to measure health-related quality of life (HRQOL). We found 5.2% of cardiac surgery-related probable PTSD and CPTSD at a 5-year follow-up, 1.9% PTSD, and 3.3% CPTSD. Low HRQOL was associated with a high risk for PTSD/CPTSD at follow-up. The results showed that cardiac surgery might have a long-term effect on PTSD and CPTSD symptoms. Patients with low HRQOL are at higher risk of having PTSD/CPTSD risk. The study informs about the need for psychosocial interventions to reduce the impact of cardiac surgery on neuropsychiatric conditions and the improvement of HRQOL., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: The study aimed to evaluate the long-term change of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and to identify predictors of HRQOL 5 years after cardiac surgery., Methods: Consecutive adult patients, undergoing elective cardiac surgery were enrolled in the study. HRQOL was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire before and 5-years after cardiac surgery. A multivariate latent change modeling approach was used for data analysis., Results: 210 participants (30.5% female) were reached at 5-year follow-up and included in final data analysis. The study revealed, after controlling for gender effects, a significant long-term positive change, in physical functioning (PF, M slope  = 19.79, p < 0.001), social functioning (SF, M slope  = 17.27, p < 0.001), vitality (VT, M slope  = 6.309, p < 0.001) and mental health (MH, M slope  = 8.40, p < .001) in the total sample. Lower education was associated with an increase in PF (M slope  = 24.09, p < 0.001) and VT (M slope  = 8.39, p < 0.001), more complicated surgery (other than the coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) predicted increase in general health (GH, M slope  = 6.76, p = 0.005). Arrhythmia was a significant predictor for lower pre- and post-operative VT and SF., Conclusions: Overall HRQOL in our sample improved from baseline to five years postoperatively. Further studies including larger patient groups are needed to confirm these findings., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Introduction: We report a case of an adult patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria that was successfully managed with veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)., Case Report: A 25 year old male with no significant past medical history had been admitted to a local hospital due to dyspnea and fever. His pulmonary function subsequently failed necessitating mechanical ventilation (MV) and introduction of ECMO support. The patient was transported for 300 km by road on ECMO to a tertiary medical center. The diagnosis of ARDS, HIV infection and MDR bacterial and fungal VAP was made. Patient was successfully treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART), anti-infective agents and 58 days of veno-venous ECMO support, with complete resolution of the respiratory symptoms., Conclusion: HIV infected patients with ARDS and MDR bacterial VAP whose HIV replication is controlled by ART could be successfully managed with ECMO.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the role of blood soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) levels in the diagnosis and prognostication of sepsis in critically ill patients., Methods: Serum suPAR levels were measured prospectively in adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients on admission and then daily until ICU discharge (maximum of 14 days) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. Normal levels were established in 31 healthy controls., Results: We included 258 patients (161 men); median admission Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores were 17 (9-23) and 6 (3-9), respectively. The mortality rate was 13.6%. Sepsis was diagnosed on admission in 94 patients (36%), of whom 23 had severe sepsis and 49 had septic shock. On admission, septic patients had higher suPAR levels than did nonseptic patients (8.9 [5.9-12.7] vs 3.7 [2.7-5.4] ng/mL), but the predictive value of suPAR for diagnosing sepsis was weaker than that of C-reactive protein. During the week after ICU admission, serum suPAR concentrations correlated with Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores over time. High suPAR levels on admission were a strong independent predictor for ICU and 28-day mortality. In the global population, a suPAR level higher than 6.15 ng/mL had 66% sensitivity and 64% specificity for prediction of ICU mortality, with a receiver operating characteristic area under the curve of 0.726 (95% confidence interval, 0.645-0.808)., Conclusions: In ICU patients, serum suPAR concentrations have limited use for identifying sepsis, but their time course correlated with the degree of organ dysfunction, and they have prognostic value in septic and nonseptic populations., (© 2013.)