The study by Dr Biola et al is one of those good-news-badnews pieces that certainly points out some areas for growth and improvement, while on a positive note demonstrating that both skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities are doing a decent job of at least discussing residents’ preferences with respect to end-of-life care and life-sustaining treatment (LST). Although this stu...

OBJECTIVE A multipronged approach to improve vital organ perfusion during cardiopulmonary resuscitation that includes sodium nitroprusside, active compression-decompression cardiopulmonary resuscitation, an impedance threshold device, and abdominal pressure (sodium nitroprusside-enhanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation) has been recently shown to increase coronary and cerebral perfusion pressures...

OBJECTIVE To study the profile of care provided to pediatric patients suffering fatal outcomes at a university hospital, including: description of models, comparisons between units, associated factors, participants involved and records of decisions made. METHODS Cross-sectional study. One of the investigators reviewed the medical and nursing records of deceased patients. Interviews were held ...

The causative agent of cholera, Vibrio cholerae, can enter into a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state in response to unfavorable conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in situ survival of V. cholerae in an aquatic environment of the Southern Caribbean Sea, and its induction and resuscitation from the VBNC state. V. cholerae non-O1, non-O139 was inoculated into diffusion chambe...

conclusions ia fluid resuscitation is superior to iv resuscitation in hemorrhagic shock induced cardiac arrest. results while iv rl infusion failed to restore chest motion in mice (n = 5), ia rl infusion restored chest motion in all mice examined (n = 6) (p = 0.0067). in three mice, iv rl infusion after cardiac arrest showed no effect on cc. after failure of venous infusion, ia rl infusion was ...

As medical science continues to advance, patients nowadays with progressive cardiopulmonary diseases live to older ages. However, they too will eventually reach their unsustainable physiological limit and many die in poor health and discomfort prior to their demise. Regrettably many physicians have not kept pace in dealing with the inevitable end-of- life issues, along with modern technological...

OBJECTIVES In the context of serious or life-limiting illness, pediatric patients and their families are faced with difficult decisions surrounding appropriate resuscitation efforts in the event of a cardiopulmonary arrest. Code status orders are one way to inform end-of-life medical decision making. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the extent to which pediatric providers have knowl...

OBJECTIVE To report and analyse the pattern of end-of-life decision making for terminal Chinese cancer patients. DESIGN Retrospective descriptive study. SETTING A cancer clinical trials unit in a large teaching hospital. PATIENTS From April 1992 to August 1997, 177 consecutive deaths of cancer clinical trial patients were studied. MAIN MEASUREMENT Basic demographic data, patient status ...