OBJECTIVE To study elderly patients' preferences regarding mechanical ventilation and tube feeding and to compare their preferences for short-term use with their preferences for long-term use of these life support interventions. DESIGN Interviews with patients by clinicians during routine office visits. SETTING Hospital-based, primary care geriatrics clinic in downtown Denver, Colo. PATIE...

Eleven patients who had been surgically treated from 1988 to 1999 were retrospectively reviewed in order to evaluate the efficacy of ventilation tube insertion and mastoidectomy with, or without, mastoid obliteration for intractable middle-ear cholesterol granuloma. The mean age registered was 17.2 years at the time of surgical treatment. All cases were unilaterally affected. Five ears were tre...

UNLABELLED The Laryngeal Tube is a new supraglottic ventilatory device for airway management. It has been developed to secure a patent airway during either spontaneous or mechanical ventilation. In this study, we sought to determine the effectiveness of the Laryngeal Tube for primary airway management during routine surgery with mechanical ventilation. One-hundred-seventy-five subjects classifi...

INTRODUCTION Echocardiographic, electrocardiographic and other cardiorespiratory variables can change during weaning from mechanical ventilation. OBJECTIVES To analyze changes in cardiac function, using Doppler echocardiogram, in critical patients during weaning from mechanical ventilation, using two different weaning methods: pressure support ventilation and T-tube; and comparing patient sub...

AIM To compare T-tube and pressure support ventilation (PSV) as two methods of mechanical ventilation weaning of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after failed extubation. METHODS A prospective randomized trial carried out at the multidisciplinary intensive care unit (ICU) over 2 years included 136 patients with COPD who required mechanical ventilation longer than 24 ...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS The use of myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion after maxillary swing nasopharyngectomy was originally described to prevent the occurrence of otitis media with effusion. The outcome of this otologic procedure has never been reviewed and discussed. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion in this group of patient...

BACKGROUND The laryngeal tube has a potential role in patients with a difficult airway, but cricoid pressure is required if the patient is at risk of aspiration. The effect of cricoid pressure on insertion of these devices is unknown. METHODS In a randomized cross-over study, the laryngeal tube (25 patients) or the laryngeal tube-suction II (15 patients) was inserted with cricoid pressure app...

OBJECTIVES To determine the effects of prolonged ventilation tube retention on tympanic membrane healing and the efficacy of patching procedures used concomitantly at the time of tube removal. DESIGN Retrospective chart review. SETTING Tertiary referral academic institution. PATIENTS Seventy-six patients aged 12 years and younger, with a total of 99 ears identified from January 1989 to De...

OBJECTIVES To assess the complications of ventilation tubes that were retained in children for 2 years or longer and the necessity of removal. DESIGN A retrospective chart review of all patients who underwent ventilation tube removal from 1997 to 2000, with the exclusion of patients with craniofacial anomalies. SETTING A tertiary children's hospital. PATIENTS One hundred twenty-six childr...