BACKGROUND Lumbar spine surgery demands intense analgesia. Preemptive multimodal analgesia (MMA) is a novel approach to attenuate the stress response to surgical stimulus. AIMS The aim of the study was to assess the intraoperative morphine consumption in patients undergoing lumbar spine surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS A randomized, prospective, double-blind study involving 42 patients belongi...

OBJECTIVE There are controversial findings in the literature on the effects of chest physiotherapy on postextubation lung collapse in pediatric age group. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of chest physiotherapy in prevention of postextubation atelectasis in pediatric patients. MATERIALS & METHODS In a case-control study from March 2007 to March 2011, two groups of patients (35 ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Heated, humidified high-flow nasal cannula (HHHFNC) is commonly used as a noninvasive mode of respiratory support in the NICU. The safety and efficacy of HHHFNC have not been compared with other modes of noninvasive support in large randomized trials. The objective was to assess the efficacy and safety of HHHFNC compared with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (n...

INTRODUCTION Weaning protocols that include noninvasive ventilation (NIV) decrease re-intubation rates and ICU length of stay. However, impaired airway clearance is associated with NIV failure. Mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MI-E) has been proven to be very effective in patients receiving NIV. We aimed to assess the efficacy of MI-E as part of an extubation protocol. METHOD Patients wi...

STUDY OBJECTIVE We prospectively investigated alternative clinical practice strategies for critically ill trauma patients following extubation to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of these maneuvers. The primary change was elimination of the routine use of postextubation supplemental oxygen, with concurrent utilization of noninvasive positive pressure ventilatory support (NPPV) to manage occurren...