http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. For critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation, daily sedation interruption did not reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation or appear to offer any benefit to patients, and may have increased both sedation and analgesic use and nurse workload, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Annual Congress. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-daily-sedation-critically-ill-patients.html Other Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:20:01 EST news269675759 A new study has found that some kinds of infection data may not be comparable across hospitals, and may not be suitable for use as a performance measure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-infection-hospitals.html Health Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:54:28 EST news267184460 Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a novel device to continuously and systematically monitor the dynamics of premature babies' breathing. The small, noninvasive device dubbed "Pneumonitor," makes possible the early detection of respiratory problems, allowing for preventative care before the onset of complications. The findings were published in the January issue of Intensive Care Medicine.   Dr. Danny Waisman of the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Carmel Medical Center and Prof. Amir Landesberg of the Technion Department of Biomedical Engineering, the device’s developers, say the device has been already been tested on animals in different disease models – including asthma and respiratory tract disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-respiratory-premature-babies-ready-fda.html Other Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:31:30 EST news252747081 In contrast to findings of previous studies, patients who experienced an acute lung injury, such as from pneumonia or sepsis, and received dietary supplements including omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants had more days on a ventilator, more days in the intensive care unit (ICU), and a non-statistically significant increase in the rate of death, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine meeting in Berlin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-dietary-supplements-patients-lung-injury.html Health Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:50:10 EST news237026895 Patients with severe 2009 H1N1 influenza who developed respiratory failure and were treated with a system that adds oxygen to the patient's blood had a lower rate of in-hospital death than similar patients who did not receive this treatment, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine meeting in Berlin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-oxygenating-death-h1n1-patients-respiratory.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:47:45 EST news237026852 Researchers have discovered that obese adults undergoing surgery are less frequently developing respiratory insufficiency (RI) and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and that when they do, they are less likely to have fatal outcomes. The researchers say they have several theories of how obesity protects patients from mortality associated with RI/ARDS, and pinpointing the protective mechanism could help them develop interventions to help non-obese patients avoid adverse outcomes. The finding comes from a study published online ahead of print in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-obese-patients-die-respiratory-distress.html Health Mon, 11 Jul 2011 04:16:22 EST news229576568