Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
There is little evidence on respiratory support with extracorporeal systems – enough of an argument for most of those doubting the procedure not to use it, or even make it available.
Ventilation
Ventilator-associated pneumonia
The use of endotracheal tubes with a dorsal lumen to allow drainage of respiratory secretions is currently not common in Germany, although two meta-analyses from the USA and Canada have already demonstrated that this special technique can reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) by 45-50%.
GE unveils avance CS2 Anaesthesia Delivery System
Leveraging more than 100 years of anaesthesia expertise, GE Healthcare introduces ecoFLOW technology option to help guide clinicians in agent delivery, while providing economic and environmental benefits.
GE introduces Giraffe Stand Alone Resuscitation System
GE Healthcare yesterday announced the availability of the Giraffe® Stand-Alone Infant Resuscitation (STAR) System, which integrates critical capabilities to enhance effective resuscitation of newborns.
A ‘Sky(I)CU’ for the world travel champions
In 2011, among Germany’s 82 million people 69.5 million holiday trips were made, each lasting at least five days; 47.8 million (68.8%) of these were abroad.
Safer sleep, safer sugar
Ensuring the safety of hospitalised patients is vital – and brought under a particularly strong focus in anaesthesiology. Launched in 2010, the Helsinki Declaration provided a further boost. Report: Holger Zorn
Neonatologists recommend volume-targeted ventilation for premature babies
Volume-targeted ventilated premature babies have a higher survival rate and suffer less ventilation-related lung damage – this is the result of a survey amongst international neonatologists.
Breathing space
If the hopes of inventors are to be believed, in around 20 years’ time there will be ‘real artificial lungs -- for now the endpoint of a history that began 84 years ago with the invention of the iron lung. Until then, non-invasive and invasive mechanical respiration will continue to dominate the hospital, complemented by extracorporeal procedures for blood oxygenation and decarbonisation,…
Reducing breath size and pressure from ICU ventilator increases long-term survival in people with acute lung injury
Carefully adjusting mechanical ventilator settings in the intensive care unit to pump smaller breaths into very sick lungs can reduce the chances of dying by as much as 8 percent, according to a study by critical care experts at Johns Hopkins. Study participants were evaluated for two years after their acute lung injury.
Hemolung speeds COPD patient recovery
This March, Heinz-Dieter Hilgers arrived for his once-monthly check-up at Ruhrlandklinik in Essen. Last June, his situation was far less relaxed. Suffering chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for almost two years, he had been listed for a lung transplant since April 2009. During his wait for an organ, his illness increased.
Easy breathe - new tools for prolonged lung support
Often a life-saving intervention, mechanical ventilation also has some serious drawbacks: the need for sedation, the risk of ventilator associated pneumonia, intubation or tracheostomy related complications. In 1972, Donald Hill from Pacific Medical Centre, Los Angeles, reported the first successful long-term mechanical lung assist device with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
Electrical impedance tomography
This March, Dräger Medical will bring to the bedside of respiratory patients an innovative new monitor that vividly shows, breath-by-breath, their response to treatment. After shifting a patient’s position, or adjusting the respirator setting, or delivering a drug to open airways, physicians and nurses will be able to watch in real-time the response inside the patient’s lungs.
Linde Healthcare launches new funding for healthcare innovation
The Linde Group’s global business unit Linde Healthcare today announced it has launched the Linde Healthcare REALfund in September. The fund is intended to support and stimulate novel and innovative ideas, research and projects relating to the use of gases in certain therapeutic focus areas of healthcare.
Ventilation-associated pneumonia
Every year in German hospitals about 15,000 patients acquire ventilation-associated pneumonias (VAP). This number, and the associated mortality, is striking enough to make it one of the topics at HAI 2010, the annual conference of the German Society for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI). Like many physicians, Dr Maria Deja, senior physician at the Charité Clinic for…
No more machines!
For many ICU patients, entering the Kloster Grafschaft, in Schmallenberg, Germany, a hospital specialised in pneumology and allergology, is a last resort. On average, they have been in an ICU for seven weeks and have failed three attempts to be weaned from the ventilator. They have been deemed ‘unweanable’.
New GE technology powers sick babies’ journeys within hospitals
GE Healthcare has introduced to the European market the Giraffe® Shuttle transportable power source for its Giraffe and Panda families of incubators and warmers. By transforming these healing environments into transport devices, the Giraffe Shuttle eliminates the need for transferring premature and sick babies to and from transport incubators.
GE Healthcare at Euroanaesthesia
Clinicians all over the world use GE Healthcare products and solutions to anesthetize patients. The breakthrough ideas of a small Ohio company in 1910, the predecessor to the anesthesia division of GE Healthcare, have evolved into innovations that continue to open new frontiers in anesthesia. Today, GE Healthcare provides anesthesia technologies in many countries worldwide, collaborating closely…
Nonin's Equanox brings novel design to oximetry
What is good for the body may not be good for the mind. In an effort to repair heart damage with bypass surgery patients may experience unintended cerebral damage, including neuroligical impairment or even stroke.
Large capacity intensive care ambulances
In March 2008 over 200 cars were involved in a mass traffic accident caused by fog between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Six passengers were killed; hundreds were injured. Similar road traffic accidents, airplane crashes on the most frequented hub in the region and fires in factories and skyscrapers are among the mass casualty events that the Dubai Centre of Ambulance Services face on a daily basis.
IWI: An integrative weaning index of discontinuation from mechanical ventilation
"Indexes predicting weaning outcome are frequently inaccurate," said Sérgio N Nemer RRT PhD of the Intensive Care Unit, Hospital de Clínicas de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, explaining why he and a team of colleagues have developed a new integrative weaning index that aims to improve the accuracy of the traditional indexes. Their online provisional abstract published by Critical Care has…
E-learning for SERVO-i with NAVA
NAVA is a new mechanical ventilation method in which the ventilator is controlled directly by the patient's neural breath control, and is incorporated in Maquet´s Servo-i system.
A compact and clever anaesthesia unit
ARCUS -- It’s a portable, fully electronic, stand-alone inhalation anaesthesia unit that offers the electronic gas mixer EGAMIX. The wall version is used for induction. Compared to a conventional mechanical rotameter, this machine simplifies work considerably due to the fully automatic electronic control and supervision of the adjusted parameters, the manufacturer EKU Elektronik GmbH. reports.
The 2009 Bernhard Dräger Award
Dr Vasilios Papaioannou, of the Democritus University of Thrace in Alexandroupoli, Greece, received the €15,000 Bernhard Dräger Award for Advanced Treatment of Acute Respiratory Failure during the opening of The European Society for Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) annual conference in Vienna.