Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease resulting in destruction of the post-synaptic nicotinic receptors at the neuromuscular junction. Classically, the earliest symptoms of MG are ocular, including ptosis and diplopia. Other less common early symptoms include dysphagia and fatigable chewing. Our case report describes the unusual presentation of MG in a teenager patient and presented f...

In a study of ventilated patients in a recent issue of Critical Care, Shahin and colleagues [1] compared the length of stay in ICU between patients who acquired a suspected ventilator-associated respiratory infection (sVARI) and patients who remained free of this infection. There are two basic facts that require special attention in the statistical analysis. First, ventilation is a timedependen...

background: application noninvasive ventilation in the patients with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) reduced mortality. this case-control study was designed to compare efficiency and outcome of non-invasive (niv) versus invasive positive pressure ventilation (ippv) in respiratory failure due to copd methods: the patients were assigned to niv or ippv intermittantly.t...

OBJECTIVE The role of airway pressure release ventilation in the management of early smoke inhalation injury has not been studied. We compared the effects of airway pressure release ventilation and conventional mechanical ventilation on oxygenation in a porcine model of acute respiratory distress syndrome induced by wood smoke inhalation. DESIGN Prospective animal study. SETTING Government ...

Although the trend in the neonatal intensive care unit is to use noninvasive ventilation whenever possible, invasive ventilation is still often necessary for supporting pre-term neonates with lung disease. Many different ventilation modes and ventilation strategies are available to assist with the optimization of mechanical ventilation and prevention of ventilator-induced lung injury. Patient-...

INTRODUCTION Paramedics often encounter patients with difficult airways requiring emergent airway management. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare intubation utilizing the Airtraq with direct laryngoscopy (DL) in the manikin model. We evaluated the number of attempts, the time to successful intubation, and the Airtraq's learning curve. METHODS This was a randomized, crossover ...

conclusions according to the results of our study, neck collar fixation has no effect on ventilation in multiple trauma patients. results this study involved 163 multiple trauma patients. of these, 65% were male. the mean of end tidal carbon dioxide (etco2) of the patients without neck collars was 34.62 ± 4.46 and the mean etco2 of the patients with neck collars was 34.21 ± 2.31. there was no s...

background: endotracheal or tracheostomy tube in mechanically ventilated patients disturb verbal communication with others. therefore, patients are frustrated of requesting for their needs or problems related to artificial breathing. therefore investigating self-experiences of these patients can be applied in providing them with a better care by clinical personnel. methods: this is a qualitativ...

INTRODUCTION Severe Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) causes ventilatory insufficiency and the need for prolonged artificial ventilation. Under circumstances where medical care for patients with severe GBS is required in a resource-limited institution, identifying initial clinical presentations in GBS patients that can predict respiratory insufficiency and the need for prolonged mechanical ventilat...