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Biomedical subjects

C M Wollschlager

Publications and source records attributed to C M Wollschlager.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

COPD and other diseases in chronically ventilated patients in a prolonged respiratory care unit: a retrospective 20-year survival study.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the long-term prognosis of ventilator-dependent patients. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: A prolonged respiratory care unit (PRCU). The PRCU provides comprehensive medical, nursing, and respiratory care to tracheostomized, ventilator-dependent adult patients who had failed all attempts at weaning. Because of their medical complexity, these patients could not be discharged to a lower level of care. PATIENTS: Of the 293 patients admitted to the PRCU over a 20-year period beginning January 1, 1977, 145 had respiratory failure from COPD, 22 from spinal cord disease or trauma, 34 from primary CNS disease, 50 from primary neuromuscular disease, and 16 from chest wall disease. Twenty-six patients were not classifiable into the above categories. MEASUREMENTS: Demographics, diagnoses, and survival data were reviewed. The survival of patients with COPD was compared with the other diagnosis categories using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: The median survival for the entire group was 9 months; younger age and female gender were both predictive of longer survival (both, p < 0.001). The median survival of those with COPD (5 months) was significantly shorter than that of patients with spinal cord disease (47 months), neuromuscular disease (17 months), and chest wall disease (27 months) (all, p < 0.01). These differences in survival were present even with inclusion of gender and age in the model as covariates. The survival of patients with CNS disease was not significantly different from survival of patients with COPD. CONCLUSION: Chronically ventilated patients with respiratory failure from COPD have a significantly worse prognosis than patients with respiratory failure from other causes.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

A regional weaning center for patients requiring mechanical ventilation: an 18-month experience.

This report reviews the outcomes of patients on mechanical ventilation admitted to a new regional weaning center. We reviewed the records of 47 patients admitted to the weaning center over an 18-month period. All patients had a tracheostomy, were ventilator dependent, and considered difficult to wean by their referring physician. The mean days of ventilator dependence prior to transfer to our facility was 86 days, with a range of 21 to 332 days. Patients were admitted to a 12-bed weaning unit at our chronic disease and rehabilitation hospital and assessed by a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, nurses, and therapists. Thirty patients were successfully weaned from prolonged mechanical ventilation and subsequently discharged from our unit. These data indicate that the majority of difficult to wean patients admitted to our regional weaning center were successfully liberated from prolonged mechanical ventilation.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Common complications in critically ill patients.

Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) are subject to many complications connected with the advanced therapy required for their serious illnesses. Complications of ventilatory support include problems associated with short-term and long-term intubation, barotrauma, gastrointestinal tract bleeding, and weaning errors. Cardiac tachyarrhythmias can arise from a patient's intrinsic cardiac disease, as well as from drug therapy itself. Hemodynamic monitoring is crucial to careful patient management, but it is associated with technical complications during insertion such as pneumothorax, as well as interpretive errors such as those caused by positive end-inspiratory pressure. Acute renal failure can develop as a result both of therapy with drugs such as aminoglycosides and hypotension of many etiologies, as well as the use of contrast media. Nosocomial infection, which is a dreaded complication in ICU patients, usually arises from sources in the urinary tract, bloodstream, or lung. Complications frequently can arise if the interactions of drugs commonly used in the ICU are not recognized. Further, the ICU patient is subject to nutritional complications, acid base problems, and psychological disturbances. This monograph deals with the frequency, etiology, and prevention of these common ICU complications.

Acid-Base Imbalance↗
PubMed1987

Controlled, comparative study of ciprofloxacin versus ampicillin in treatment of bacterial respiratory tract infections.

The efficacy and safety of ciprofloxacin in bacterial bronchitis were compared with those of ampicillin in a double-blind, prospective clinical trial. Eighty-seven patients received either oral ciprofloxacin (750 mg twice daily) or oral ampicillin (500 mg four times daily). Ciprofloxacin was as effective as ampicillin and produced a 98 percent clinical cure rate. Significantly more pretreatment bacterial isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin (p less than 0.05), and ciprofloxacin had a significantly higher rate of sputum sterilization than did ampicillin (p less than 0.05). Ciprofloxacin showed broad in vitro antibacterial activity with particularly low minimal inhibitory concentrations for gram-negative organisms. Ciprofloxacin was well tolerated; there were few adverse effects, and patients had a significantly lower incidence of diarrhea with ciprofloxacin than with ampicillin (p less than 0.05). Ciprofloxacin was an effective and well-tolerated treatment for bacterial bronchitis that had the advantages of broad in vitro antibacterial activity and twice-daily dosing.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Utility of radiography and clinical features in the diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia.

This article reviews the approach to the differential diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia using clinical clues and radiography. Evidence is reviewed that indicates that the etiology of such pneumonias is changing. The basic clinical patterns, including bacterial, nonbacterial, and mixed presentations are discussed, as well as how aspiration, diabetes, and alcoholism affect the differential diagnosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Pulmonary manifestations of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Fifteen patients with AIDS were hospitalized on the pulmonary service during the period from 1981 to 1983. We were impressed with the frequency and severity of lung involvement in these patients and evaluated them with respect to their pulmonary manifestations of AIDS. The 13 men and two women had a mean age of 32 years. Ten were active intravenous drug abusers with a mean drug use of 8.1 years. All presented with profound weight loss, ten with nonproductive cough, and eight with significant dyspnea. Fourteen of 15 patients had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) at the time of our evaluation. Chest radiographs in these 14 patients showed no uniform pattern which was predictive of PCP. However, all 13 patients tested had a widened alveolar arterial oxygen gradient (mean: 59 mm Hg) which correlated well with the presence of PCP. The most common pulmonary finding in our AIDS patients was infection: 14 had PCP which was readily diagnosed by transbronchial lung biopsy in eight patients, and five patients were found to have disseminated Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare which often developed after "recovery" from PCP. Therapy for PCP with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMZ) was unsuccessful in eight of ten patients; four of these eight TMP/SMZ failures responded to pentamidine. Mortality was 100 percent in patients who had AIDS for more than one year, and 70 percent in those less than one year. Despite some symptomatic responses to therapy for pulmonary infections, the mortality in AIDS seems to be unaffected by appropriate therapy for the pulmonary manifestations of this disease.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1983

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome. A deadly new disease.

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) represents a new epidemic of major proportions. Risk factors include homosexuality, intravenous drug abuse, Haitian descent, and multiple transfusion in the presence of hemophilia A. The etiology of AIDS remains unknown, but there is increasing evidence implicating a transmissible infectious agent and/or multiple antigenic exposures inducing a loss of immunoregulation. In a high-risk patient, the features of weight loss, generalized lymphadenopathy, and fever should arouse suspicion of AIDS. Diagnostic confirmation includes demonstration of reduced numbers of T lymphocytes with reversal of helper-suppressor T-lymphocyte ratio, presence of unusual opportunistic infections, and a progressive downhill course. The most common infection in AIDS is Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Treatment failures with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim, Septra) are common; pentamidine isethionate (Lomidine) may be more effective in eradicating the infection. In spite of initial improvement, recurrences of P carinii pneumonia and other opportunistic infections are common. In addition, other protozoan, viral, fungal, and atypical mycobacterial infections are frequent in patients with AIDS. Finally, rare neoplasms such as Kaposi's sarcoma and B-cell lymphoma, including primary lymphoma of the brain, are also being recognized as complications. At present there is no specific therapy for AIDS, and the disease is usually fatal. Continued research will hopefully result in immunomodulation techniques and specific vaccines to combat this serious epidemic.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1977

Acute pulmonary complications in systemic lupus erythematosus. Immunofluorescence and light microscopic study.

Lung tissue obtained from eight consecutive patients with systemic lupus erythematosus complicated by severe, acute pulmonary disease was studied by both light and immunofluorescence microscopy. Light microscopic examination disclosed interstitial pneumonia in four cases, cytomegalovirus pneumonitis in one case, bronchiolitis and peribronchiolitis in one case, pulmonary infarction in one case and focal atelectasis in the remaining case. Direct immunofluorescence examination revealed focally bound immunoglobulins or complement (C3) within pleural and/or pneumocyte nuclei in each specimen. Immunohistologic studies in these cases may thus suggest a diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus with acute pulmonary complications, despite the lack of specificity of the pathologic changes seen by light microscopy.

Female↗